Of Void
by SSJ42
Summary: Chapter 4 is now up. I've also replaced the old chapters with some revised versions of themselves. It reflects my newfound obsession with the Japanese version, as well as some other minor changes, and I removed the awful editorial. I won't try that again.
1. Gardening with Evil

Of Void

Matthew T. H. Grimes

At the outset we enter into movie-time, where anything can happen... 

Chapter One

Gardening with Evil

In Original Japanese:

A New Threat for the Z-Senshi!? Identify the Tall Warrior!!

(I've decided, against my better judgement, to insert these 'original Japanese' titles into my chapters, to pay tribute to the good version, the Japanese version, of Dragon Ball Z. I hope fans of the original appreciate it. I would just like to say to anybody who may be Japanese or just to anybody, this is not, by any means, being done in a spirit of disrespect to Japanese language, people, history, or culture. To the contrary, I have great respect for all the people of Asia, with their many diverse and different cultures.)

Mr. Popo hummed one of his impromptu, self-composed tunes as he tended the trees and flowers high up on Kami's Lookout.

He lived for these moments, and he lived for them especially in the hope that there would be an impromptu tune involved. Today, the sun was shining, the trees were swaying in the wind, an impromptu tune was on his lips, and everything seemed just about perfect in the world.

What Mr. Popo did not know was just how mind-numbingly irritating his self-composed tunes, to him special and unique pieces with their own subtle nuances, messages, and themes, could become to the listener, to whom they sounded very much like the same tune repeated in endless succession. Fortunately his only listener was an extraordinarily well-balanced, even-tempered, and open-minded Namek.

Dende tried to screen out the sound, but his superior Namekian hearing made it all but impossible. He was sitting around and watching over the Earth, which was, he would tell you, his job. He would, incidentally, have been right in telling you this.

But there were other things to worry about, things Dende was, unfortunately, unaware of, like what was happening in the Room of Spirit and Time.

Two energies were swirling within the slowed-time atmosphere of the room, energies that came from the void of emptiness that made up another dimension. This other dimension was, unusually but not at all coincidentally, in contact with our own. The unexpected contact was causing strange and unnerving things to happen.

Or rather, causing them to appear.

Son Goku let out a mighty yell as he dived headfirst towards his opponent, circling his arms tightly around it in the same split-second, grappling his fierce adversary tightly, yelling louder as he exerted his muscles in the rush, struggling to hold on.

Goku coughed and spluttered as he was once again dragged under by the fish, a creature of altogether unnecessary proportions, and forced to let go in the water. He gagged and choked his way on to shore, and lay there, prostrated, thinking quietly that he was supposed to be retired at this point.

Still, the mere thought of the succulent wonders that Chi-Chi could do with this fish made him disregard his bruises, as he was also thinking very intensely about what she could do for them.

Goku had not meant for this to happen, strictly. He had been enjoying a nice bathe in the utterly perfect climate of East District, when this damn fish had knocked him about by swimming past him. He had been trying to wrestle it out of the water now for what seemed like hours.

It had, in fact, been hours. Chi-Chi would probably already have dinner on, so what was the point in trying to catch the fish? Goku had suggested that they invite Gohan and Videl for dinner that night, as both parents, although still young and brimming with sexual vigour, deeply missed having their first son around. Chi-Chi was always thinking that there was probably something he wasn't doing quite right, and Goku just missed him in the sweet, boyish way in which Goku did everything.

Goku sighed at his thoughts as he lay there, letting thoughts and water run out of his system, thinking about how they were always busy nowadays. And with Goten almost out of school and with friends (or girls) all the time, it was like they never saw either of their sons anymore.

Feeling that he had drained sufficiently, Goku rose to his feet, drying off and pulling on his pants. He sat down and put his boots on, thinking, as he always did, that it had taken him quite some time to get the order of operations right for this. As he stood, his boots and pants on, he heard a rustle in the bushes to his left.

He stared quizzically at the bushes, as though he expected them to get embarrassed and explain themselves. He pulled on his shirt and had his gi over his head when the bushes rustled again. "Chi-Chi?" Goku asked them, although his instincts were flaring. "Is that you?" He speedily pulled his gi on, tucking it in.

It could easily have just been some local wildlife, but Goku's well-honed Saiyajin instincts said otherwise.

He planted both feet firmly on the ground in case an attack came, and spoke in his best stern voice, which he had always thought was a rather poor stern voice but had given up on trying to improve. "Whoever you are, show yourself right now!"

There was a pause and no further movement at present. Goku stood, his feet firmly planted, his jaw set, waiting. The Saiyajin warrior could hear his own breathing, ragged and worried. His nerves stood straight up as though they had been called on to answer a question they didn't know.

He stood there for at least three tense moments, not knowing what would happen or if, of course, it would happen.

Without any warning, a black blur flew at him, and a booted foot impacted with Goku's left cheek.

Despite his set feet and prepared posture, he staggered back a few steps, off-balance. His arms shot up to block the blow that he heard coming at his face. The impact of the blow caused a stinging pain that remained in his bones afterward. His arms were used to aching profusely, which was lucky for him. He lowered his arms as his attacker flipped away and landed, grinning widely, ten feet or so from Goku.

Goku's attacker was no more than five feet tall, somewhere in the neighbourhood of three-and-a-half. It was a small boy with night-blue skin, pointed ears, whitish-blue hair, yellow eyes with black, cat-like pupils, white pants, a black vest and black boots.

"Wha...? Said Goku, bewildered that he had not felt this child before, and frightened of how he was staring at him, like something from a nightmare.

Goku thought again about how he was supposed to be retired and really shouldn't have to be dealing with this sort of thing. "Who are you!?" he said, trying to sound forceful in spite of his fear.

The boy, who was sensitive to emotions such as fear, which brought people closer to death, laughed maniacally at Goku. Goku stepped back in consternation as the first boy was joined in his laughter by a very similar laugh, coming from behind. Goku glanced over his shoulder and saw another boy, slightly taller than the first, with long hair and similar physical features. The eyes, however, were precisely the same. These boys were very strong, Goku realised, stronger than even Buu had ever been. Goku assumed his stance, waiting for an attack at this point.

Both of them had now gone silent and were staring at Goku, disturbing him with their empty, evil eyes. The Saiyajin fearlessly met the eyes of the one in front of him.

At the last possible moment, Goku spun around to his right on his left foot, meeting the flying right-legged kick of the second one with his right forearm, moving it slightly to the side and hoping to punch him quickly, just to teach him a lesson. He set his right leg on the ground in an instant, balling his right fist.

Goku was deprived the chance to strike his attacker as he hopped into the air, avoiding by centimetres the sweep directed at his legs from the boy behind him. He then phased out as another kick from the longhaired boy knifed through his after-image. He appeared about seventeen feet above the ground, staring at the two boys as the longhaired boy dropped to the ground beside his companion. "What... are they?" Goku said as they stared up at him hatefully. Goku quickly snapped into his stance again as they laughed at him.

The others, he thought, had to be on their way.

Both of them rushed straight at him, before he had time to think about it.

Gohan sat at his writing desk, in his home with Videl in Satan City. All he ever did these days was write and train, he thought to himself. He missed his father and mother, although he would never tell Videl that, as he loved his life with her, but felt like they never saw anyone anymore. Pan was of course growing up wonderfully, and they could see Bulma and Vegeta whenever they wanted.

Gohan gave a healthy eye-roll to that one. Seeing Bulma and Vegeta was very dangerous, since Bulma had sort of always been crazy and Vegeta, who had always had his own issues to worry about, was getting crazier day by day. Still, Gohan found solace and relief in training.

He was, however, not very happy to be in the house alone. Videl was always gone, and Gohan found it slightly embarrassing that they had a less active sex life than his parents did. He found it additionally embarrassing that his father would unabashedly talk about it to him. But he had to consider that his parents lived in the middle of nowhere, and had more time for those sorts of things.

And then there was Piccolo. Only rarely did Gohan get to see Piccolo, and then just for training. His old mentor might as well have been a world away.

So Gohan did what he usually did on these days, that is he typed away with reckless abandon. He stopped suddenly as he felt a sudden surge of power and heard an explosion from somewhere in the city. The ground shook menacingly, as pencils rolled off of his shelves and his computer screen flickered.

He had felt very few powers this high. He looked out the window, the explosion only just clearing as smoke began to rise. _What could that be?_ He thought. _It's just too strong..._ Gohan stood grimly and ran to his room.

Quickly pulling on his black vest and pants, he buttoned up hurriedly, getting them out of order. The phone began to ring. Beginning the buttoning process once more, he picked the phone up frantically. "Gohan speaking."

Videl spoke out of the receiver, panic slightly evident in her voice. "Gohan!? What happened?"

Gohan finally got the buttons right. "I don't know, Videl. I'm gonna go check it out." Gohan ran out of the room as there was yet another explosion, dropping the receiver.

Videl's voice continued frantically. "You can't, Gohan! Gohan? Gohan!" Goku's son was already in midair.

Trunks and Goten's class at Orange Star High School was in an uproar as a huge office building not far away was engulfed in a rather large explosion, then toppled, causing an even larger explosion. Their teacher, Miss Kurumi, tried patiently to calm them.

Trunks and Goten were almost in their twenties, but, due to the several earth-saving distractions they had been forced to attend to, they were still here, in a very advanced class. Their classmates were the schools unfortunates, most being either complacent or too stupid to be complacent.

"I don't get paid enough for this..." She said, sitting at her desk, her face in her hands.

Trunks and Goten looked at one another in fear. "Did you feel that?" Trunks asked his friend.

Goten nodded. "Yeah. But how are we gonna get out there to help my brother?"

They both looked at the near-sobbing Miss Kurumi, then back at one another, and then at their classmates, who were excitedly expostulating as to what tragedy this might herald.

They looked back at one another and shrugged. Trunks opened the window and prepared to climb out, when Miss Kurumi, who was pretty but didn't have much luck at present and was rather depressed, shouted at them fearfully. "Keep that window closed, Trunks!" She said. "There might be some... dangerous fumes in the air from the explosion."

"Yes, Miss Kurumi," Trunks said, sighing and closing the window.

He leaned against the wall and looked tensely at Goten. "We have got to get out of here somehow!" Goten whispered fiercely.

"We could just walk out," Trunks said. "Not like anyone could stop us."

"Okay," Goten began in patronising tones. "Good idea, but my mother would **physically** kill me for that!"

Trunks sighed. "I know." He smiled and brightened. "Maybe we could go to the bathroom!"

"Might work," Goten said. "But we've gotta go together. I think this situation might call for a visit from our good friend Gotenks. So how do we pull that off?"

"Cake!" Trunks told his friend. "I'll ask first, and wait for you outside, and then you ask a few minutes later, but you can't just ask like normal."

"What do you mean by that?" Goten said, scratching his head.

"Well, you need to rush her. You know, act like you're about to explode and pee on the floor!"

Goten smiled. "Alright, I think I've got it!"

Both of them looked about stealthily to assure that nobody had heard of their plan. Their classmates were too busy trying to figure how likely this disaster was to get them out of school the rest of the day, and, beyond that, how likely it might be to get them out of school annually.

Trunks approached Miss Kurumi's desk.

Elsewhere in Satan City, police were doing something not at all like responding to the disaster.

"What's goin' on here!?" One of Satan City's thoroughly useless police officers shouted to his teammate, feeling rather put off by the large building which had just exploded and fell into the midst of the city.

The hapless officer of the law felt even more put off when a building not far from him went up in a hailstorm of fire and brimstone. He shielded his eyes and body from the falling debris, and, when he removed his arm from his eyes, saw the image of a small, blue-skinned girl, distorted by the waves of heat, watching a man running from the wreckage, smeared with blood. He was frantically attempting to reach the police. She stood in the midst of the raging inferno. "W-we're all gonna die!" His partner screamed.

The girl raised her arm at the back of the man running away, but stopped suddenly and looked around.

He thought that he wasn't paid nearly enough, especially when a man in some weird martial arts costume (he thought) landed not far from him.

Gohan stood and stared at a girl who was doing this for exactly the same reason that the boys currently attacking Gohan's father were, and wondered who she was.

She was obviously a girl, about four and a half feet tall with a braid of long, bluish-white hair. She wore a white vest with no sleeves, white pants, and black boots.

"Uh... who are you guys?" the officer tried, experimentally. Gohan gave one look over his shoulder that completely shut the officer up. To top that off, the girl looked at him evilly in the same instant, which actually made him stagger back and fall.

Gohan looked back at the officer, who was lying on the ground, shaking with fear as he looked up at the young man. Just as he turned, the girl began running at him. "You should get out of here," He said. "Things are about to get serious."

The policeman, who had been trying to squeeze the words out since the girl had started running, now finally managed to point at her and emit a noise that cannot be replicated but whose official spelling is: 'Emlkytphbbth'.

Gohan's head whipped around to look at the object of the officers attention, and was hit very hard. The blow caused Gohan's brain to pop off for a bit. Gohan flew back, past the quaking officer, and through two other buildings, splintering and breaking glass, wood, and stone. Gohan's body hit and injured two people along the way, finally ending up lying, only dubiously conscious, on the desk of a perturbed office worker, who looked through the hole he had made.

The girl, who was hanging in the air grinning into Gohan's damaged flight path, her right fist still forward in the aftermath of the crushing, Ki-powered hook she had delivered, shifted her eyes, almost imperceptibly to anyone but him, to the policeman.

She dropped to the ground, and began walking towards the hapless man, who was frozen in utter shock. His extreme fear fed her incredible power, and she smiled, planning shortly to thank him for that.

He trembled in shock and emitted another irreplicable noise.

Gohan awoke, lying on a desk, water spurting onto his body from a busted water pipe, a portly man in a business suit staring at him warily, several seconds after he had been deposited there.

It took him almost a fourth of a second to remember the basics; who he was, where he came from, his wife's name and birthday, and almost a half a second to remember what was currently happening. It took him a whole second before he felt the incredible power and realised what a truly awful day this was going to be.

He sat up on the desk, the water now spurting onto it and its contents, and looked at the confused businessman.

"Uh... sorry about all this..." he said, quickly.

His eyes locked grimly on the distant silhouette of his opponent.

Luckily for the policeman, who normally would have been dead in far less than a second at the hands of somebody such as this girl, she was enjoying the terrible fear that her mere presence was causing this man, and in particular the way it fed her power.

She felt a flicker from Gohan's direction, and her eyes turned to him just in time for her to see his foot crash into her face, sending her rolling, then, after an attempt to flip up which ended with her on her back, sliding along the ground, and into the rubble of the building she had destroyed, causing a new explosion of dust and ruin.

Gohan dropped to the ground, looking down at the policeman sharply. "Get out of here!" He yelled.

The policeman, who by now had gone through six mid-life crises and twelve nervous breakdowns, finally followed the very good advice of the half-Saiyajin warrior, scrambling up and running away. Gohan smiled into the rubble as the girl pushed a large steel girder off of herself, shaking her hair free of dust.

Gohan knew she was angry with him, hoping only that she was angry enough to follow him. He got his answer before he had even finished his thought, leaping aside as her fist smashed into the air where his head would have been. Without thinking, she flew higher, and immediately came down, her foot crashing into the pavement, buried to just above the kneecap, as Gohan hopped aside.

She looked up at him, angrily pulling her booted foot free of the road. As she did so, she gave a kick that lifted a huge chunk of the ground, including a part of the sewer which quickly ripped off, into the air. Several more buildings crumbled with the kick, Gohan's anger growing exponentially as he felt the lives snuffed out, and more coming down as the huge rock crashed back down slowly.

Gohan controlled his anger, flaring with power and flying off at high speed. The girl stared after him, sneered, and immediately followed.

Trunks stood outside of Orange Star High School, waiting for Goten.

It was a pleasant day, the palm trees swayed in the wind, the sun shone on all the windows and floors and desks at Orange Star High School, and Trunks was so busy keeping track of the fight, he saw none of it. He had just felt a significant decrease in the negative power.

He stood for a moment, waiting.

His eyes widened as the same power suddenly skyrocketed.

He almost blew Goten away when his friend laid a hand on his shoulder. Turning to Goten, he saw him munching on a cookie.

Trunks stared at his friend for a moment. "What took you so long?" He asked, virtually rhetorically.

"I'm eating a cookie!" Goten exclaimed excitedly, crumbs spilling from his overstuffed mouth. "Oh!" He said, realising something. "Want one?" He held out a cookie to Trunks.

"You delayed us this long to get a cookie!?" Trunks shouted.

"Well, yeah," Goten said, swallowing. "Can't fuse on an empty stomach!" He stared at the other cookie. "Are you... sure you don't want this?"

"You don't even know we'll need to fuse!" Trunks explained, very patiently, he thought.

"With that kind of power, my sources say 'yes'," Goten responded. "So you don't want this?" He said, returning to the cookie.

Trunks looked to the sky as he felt Gohan leaving.

"He's trying to lead... whatever it is away from the city!" He said, white energy burning around his body. "Come on," He said, blasting off.

Goten followed hurriedly, stuffing the remaining cookie down his throat. "Wait up, Trunks!" They followed Gohan's rapidly moving power signal.

"Do you want this?" Goten's voice echoed several seconds later.

Gohan knew, unconditionally, that he had to lead her away from the city. He was fairly sure that the others would be on their way. When he turned back, he found her in mid-air, following him closely.

Gohan listened to the wind in his hair, rushing as fast as he knew how away from Satan City, and hoping the girl he was fighting was not faster than he was. "Where is everyone?" He thought moodily to himself.

It was at this point that he realised Trunks and Goten were following him. He hoped they wouldn't do anything stupid...

Gohan piled on the speed, heading off to the mountains in the East.

As he flew, he felt two more ridiculously high powers to the south, near Goku and Chi-Chi's home, wondering quietly just what the hell his father must be doing...

Goku was taken off guard by the sudden violent barrage of hammer-like punches and kicks, bringing blood flowing from his nose and mouth, the two boys laughing maniacally at him, punching and kicking him with blinding ferocity.

The shorthaired one drove his fist into Goku's stomach, bringing blood bursting from his mouth; the other gave him a two-fisted blow into the ground.

He hit the ground, breaking it like a mirror, and kicking up a cloud of dust, dirt, and rock. The two nightmarish kids remained in the air above him, grinning down at the cloud.

Goku stood, painfully, and wondered if they could feel him. They were pretty strong, he thought, as he touched his Super Saiyajin powers.

He gave a yell of anger as his hair turned a bright yellow and rose above his head. The explosion of wind and kinetic energy pushed away the cloud, leaving him standing there in his Super Saiyajin form.

His green eyes and cocky smile was the first sight that met the eyes of the two Shadow Kids, as they were called by their master, floating in the air above.

Goku stared up at the two Shadow Kids, his Super Saiyajin energies swirling around and through him, making their familiar intermittent whisking noise. The Shadow Kids were unhappy, as they had been keen on Goku being dead.

Goku spoke. "What's wrong? You guys started this. Don't want to end it?"

The Saiyajin bent his knees. "Well, I'm afraid I can't just let you get away."

He yelled as he rushed into the air towards them, kicking the long-haired boy very hard, sending him flying into the air, then blasting up after him, aware that the shorthaired one was close behind. Grabbing the long-haired boy by the leg, he spun him around quickly, using him to hit the other, and, after spinning again, released him, sending him flying into the trees below, directly into the other, short-haired warrior. There was an explosion of dust as both of them impacted, knocking down several trees. Goku stood in the air, waiting for them to recover.

With powers like theirs, he doubted seriously that he had harmed them very much.

Goku's attention suddenly shifted away from the battle, as he felt yet another enormous power to the Northeast, along with Gohan. It was this moment that one of the fighters Goku had just knocked to the ground chose to attack.

Gohan landed solidly on the ground, quickly turning to face the girl following him, throwing his arms up just in time to block a bone-crushing blow which caused him to slide in the stone beneath his feet. He grit his teeth in pain as he blocked the blow, letting his guard down as she dropped to the ground a few feet away from him.

_Man_, Gohan thought, looking at her. _This girl looks like a child, and I would never fight a child. But she_, he stared into her hateful eyes. _She has an aura of unspeakable evil. What could be happening?_

He loosened up his neck, preparing for her next attack, and wondering why she and the others he had felt were here, how his father was doing against them, and allowing his anger to grow at the thought of the people she had already killed. _This one has already killed_, he thought angrily, his Super Saiyajin energies stirring. _It doesn't matter what she looks like! _Gohan concluded resolutely. _I can't offer her any quarter. _She stood, staring menacingly, before dropping into a stance.

Synchronously, Gohan did the same, as the wind swirled around them. _I'm sure she will offer none to me._

Both fighters became indistinct and disappeared. Gohan always hated it when this happened. He frantically blocked the super-fast blows coming from his opponent, getting hit and doing some hitting himself.

The girl was forced to block a blow from Gohan, as they both reappeared in mid-air, hundreds of feet from the ground.

The blow knocked her slightly off-balance, and so he yelled loudly, drawing back his fist and smashing it into her face, sending her flying through a rock outcropping, which collapsed. After passing through it, she hit the ground with her hands, flipping up and ricocheting off of another tall outcropping, slamming her fist into Gohans stomach, then flip-kicking him into the ground.

Trunks and Goten landed, quietly, not far from Gohan and the girl.

"Wow," said Trunks to Goten, standing side by side not far from the battle. "This girl sure is something."

"Yeah," said Goten. "I hope my brother knows what he's getting into." He paused for a moment and held out the other cookie, preparing to speak.

"Yes," Trunks said, taking it quickly.

Goten looked at his friend, hurt.

Gohan flipped up from his place on the ground, standing, breathing raggedly, eyes locked with the strange girl. He took this opportunity to power up, not expecting to get much in the way of speech from her. Rocks and dirt swirled around him, kicked up by the hot wind his powerful Ki was causing. He yelled as his hair turned yellow and his eyes green, going Super Saiyajin as he could now feel his father doing some ways away.

"Come on!" He shouted at her, his anger rising as he remembered the office building full of innocents that she had brought down. _I've got to take her out!_ He thought grimly.

Energy burned around Gohan as the wind blew through the green grass and the strange girl floated high above, staring at him.

She rushed at him suddenly, her right fist drawn back, ready to punch him in the face. Gohan caught her wrist in his left hand, using her own momentum to pull her face into his elbow, ramming it into her nose and throwing her to the side, to the ground.

"Is that all you've got!?" He screamed, anger taking over as he jumped into the air and came down with his foot in her stomach, driving her into the ground. The ground around him broke in plates, the impact creating a huge crater.

Goten and Trunks laughed. "Man, he really has her against the ropes!"

Gohan rocketed out of the crater, stopping in the air several hundred feet above the ground. He drew both arms into the air above his head, screaming as red energy charged on the palms of his crossed hands. He thrust them forward, releasing a beam of orange energy into the ground. "Masenko!"

The powerful wave exploded on impact with the ground, killing and destroying everything in its path.

Its target was, unfortunately, not in its path.

She rocketed out of the hole just before the explosion and into Gohan's side, cutting short his Masenko wave. She tackled into his side hard, slamming him into the rocky ground below with a two-fisted blow. She descended to wear he lay, punching him twice in the face and then floating up and off of his prostrate form. The explosion behind her outlined her lethal features.

She stared down at him, extending her right palm. The wind blew in the mountains for a moment, and even the rocks seemed loath to fall.

The girl smiled as she prepared to blast the Saiyajin into oblivion, but was rather surprised when Gohan's right hand shot up at her, and he screamed, blasting her with a jet-stream of yellow energy, the force of which drove him into the ground.

Caught in the middle of the beam, she could do nothing but struggle towards Gohan as her skin began to burn. Gohan vaguely saw her and so poured a huge amount of his Super Saiyajin energy into it. His scream echoed around the mountain range, the beam of his anger visible for miles.

The girl, who sensed she was close to death, made a desperate manoeuvre. Extending a hand, concentrating to keep her ki field in place, she launched a small purple blast through Gohan's left shoulder.

Gohan screamed, losing his concentration and grabbing his burnt flesh. The beam disappeared immediately, and the girl quickly used the small amount of energy left to her to kill Gohan. She prepared to drive her foot deeply into his neck, snapping it.

Or so it would have been.

Goten phased in before the girl, roundhouse kicking her as hard as he could. The weakened, unsuspecting fighter flew far away through the air, smashing through rock and stone, bringing outcroppings tumbling down on her, before she finally stopped, far away.

He turned to his brother, dropping down beside him.

"Are you alright, brother?" He asked worriedly as Trunks landed beside them. Gohan stood, painfully, holding his weakened arm.

Gohan waved his brother away when he tried to support him. "Yes, I'm fine, Goten. But you and Trunks should leave so that I can deal with her."

Goten stood, his pride evident, hands on his hips. "I think you were delirious at the time, but I took care of her."

Gohan frowned. "I saw, but..."

His eyes widened as he felt her power skyrocket. She exploded from amidst the cascade of rocks. "But it was not enough to take her out!" Gohan yelled as he exploded with yellow energy, going Super Saiyajin 2.

He stood, Goten and Trunks beside him, staring up at the girl, whose power seemed to have increased somehow. Gohan spoke calmly. "Goten, you and Trunks get out of my way."

He bent his knees. "I'll take care of this."

With that, Goten and Trunks were knocked into the air as Gohan exploded with yellow energy, rocketing up towards the girl at a speed that gave the sound barrier several emotional issues.

Mr. Popo stared at the door to the Room of Spirit and Time, his impromptu tune vanished as a result of what he sensed behind it.

Dende stood behind him, as amazed and bewildered as his friend. "What could it be, Popo?" Dende asked.

"I have no idea, but it's stronger than anything I've ever felt!" Mr. Popo did not attempt to hide his considerable fear.

Dende was grim. "When it comes out, we'll lead it outside! We'll have to deal with it up here, so no one will be hurt."

It was at that moment that the door burst into thousands of tiny wooden pieces.

In the empty doorway stood yet another of the fighters that seemed not to like earth much today, another girl with similar features but shorter hair, flashing her nightmarish grin at the God and his friend.

She ran at Mr. Popo, who ducked her punch frantically, only barely missing it, and ran with Dende outside of the central building of the lookout.

She rushed out after them, laughing. As she was reaching them, there was a black blur in front of Dende and Popo. Before them stood a tall man, just short of seven feet. He wore black boots and pants, with a gold sash tied round his waist. He wore a black gi with a grey, short-sleeved shirt underneath.

He had shoulder-length white hair, intense, interesting orange eyes, and an extraordinary power. He cocked his head comically at the girl floating in front of him. He stood like that, legs straight, arms folded. "Hm... four of you... What are you trying to do?"

She grinned evilly at him, lashing out at him with her right fist. The nimble warrior simply moved his head to the left, smashing most of the girl's ribs with his right knee. He drove it into her stomach and quickly withdrew it, staring at her almost mercifully as she floated in the air in front of him, blood seeping from her mouth and dropping onto the ground, her shattered ribs puncturing parts of her innards.

Dende and Popo stood behind him, amazed. "I'm sorry about that," he said to the girl. "But you sort of attacked me for no reason."

He stared at her grimly. "So maybe this time you could tell me what it is you're trying to do."

The girl looked painfully into the warrior's eyes. He stepped back as he saw and felt the utter hatred and desire to cause pain. He felt also that it would be a favour to this girl for her to die, felt how tortured she was.

She growled at him and put up her right palm, drawing the last of her energy into it. His left hand, far larger than hers, shot up and grabbed it, dissipating the energy with it's iron grip. Quickly, without ceremony, he smashed his right fist into her cheek, knocking her unconscious. He dropped her body to the ground.

He turned and looked at Dende and Popo. "She'll wake up," He said to them, pain in his eyes because of the anguish he had seen in hers. He sighed, and stared at the ground for a moment, shaking his head as though just awaking.

Dende stepped forward. "Who are you, exactly?"

The strange warrior snapped out of his reverie. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. My name is Tennin."

"Thank you for saving us." Popo added.

He smiled. "No problem! That's just what I do. I'm a Saiyajin, you see."

Dende and Popo were speechless.

The warrior stood for a moment waiting. "Something really weird is happening to your world," he tried. "No, nothing?"

Neither Dende nor Popo said a thing. "Well, I really should get going. Goku and the others need help."

"You... you are a Saiyajin, and you've come here to _help_ us?" Mr. Popo asked, amazement evident in his smooth, lounge singer voice.

"Oh, well... yeah..." Dende spoke up.

"Any other surprises for us?" He said, smiling.

Tennin smiled back. "Not yet," he said. "I will see what I can come up with, though." Yellow ki flared around him as he effortlessly became a Super-Saiyajin. "I should get going. Goku's fighting two of them, and I know I wouldn't want to do that without help. Sorry to run," he said, lifting into the air. "We'll get acquainted later. Bye now!" He blasted off, heading Northwest, towards Goku.

"He has come here for Goku?" Popo asked, almost rhetorically.

Dende sighed and looked down at his friend. "When does anybody not?"

The long-haired boy kicked Goku hard in the stomach, but at the last possible moment Goku caught his leg and threw him off to the left, narrowly blocking as the other came in with a punch. He elbowed the short-haired boy in the chest, then spun around quickly as he saw a huge pink blast coming at him. He phased out and reappeared in front of the long-haired boy, punching him hard in the face. He spun around the boy, slamming his foot into his back, kicking him into the ground.

Yet more trees fell victim to his fall.

Goku spun quickly to meet the other, forming a ki shield in front of him at the last moment as the boy flew in for an attack, slowing him down. Goku punched him hard in the stomach, then gave him a two-fisted blow, knocking him to the ground. At this point, the other flew up and attacked Goku, exchanging blows with him at super speeds, and holding his own. He knew things would take a turn for the worst when the other recovered.

Goku might have been severely crippled, by the boy flying at his back with an intention to break it, had Vegeta, his hair yellow and his eyes green in Super Saiyajin 2, not phased in at the last moment and blasted the boy back down.

Vegeta looked at Goku and flew round him, grabbing his opponents arm as he prepared to throw a punch, spinning him several times and throwing him into the ground, directly on top of the other. Vegeta fluidly extended his right arm in the very same motion that had been used to execute the throw.

A lethal and readily recognisable energy ball flashed into existence on it.

A feared and respected phrase issued from the lips of the proud Saiyajin. "Big Bang Attack!" The words echoed throughout the forest, as local wildlife instinctively fled the bright, glowing light, tripping over one another, trampling, and in general fleeing like crazy.

The light from the attack pulsed as Vegeta gave a mighty yell of power. The only two creatures foolish enough not to move lay prostrate on the forest floor.

A flash of light as the attack was released.

And then the explosion ensued. Trees, grass, and life in general was incinerated in the inferno, a bright ball of light followed by a lingering nuclear cloud.

Vegeta floated in the air, arm outstretched, waiting to see what was left of his victims. There was, predictably, nothing. Vegeta lowered his arm, satisfied. He looked at Goku sharply. "Good morning, Kakarot," he said, as only he could.

"Hi Vegeta." Goku looked around at the destruction in consternation. "Did you have to kill them? And all those trees?"

Vegeta had seen Kakarot for fully twelve seconds this morning and already wanted to kill him. "Of course I had to, Kakarot! And there are plenty of trees left, you banjo-strumming hippie! You and your whole family..." Vegeta gestured vaguely to the huge forest of East District.

"But..." Goku stopped in mid-sentence as he and Vegeta looked towards the power approaching from the north-east.

"What is that...?" Vegeta said, nervously.

"Nobody I recognise..." Goku contributed.

Vegeta clenched his fists. "Get ready Kakarot, it may be another one."

Goku nodded as he and Vegeta floated side by side, waiting for their mysterious power to arrive.

Gohan and the girl met, explosions of kinetic energy rocking the mountains every time their blows connected. Gohan received a powerful right hook, responding with a kick to the face. Every blow was bone-crushing, as both fighters went all out.

They moved so fast that Trunks and Goten lost track of them, and could tell they were fighting only by the constant wind and the wanton destruction their battle was, without a doubt, causing.

Goten stood, slightly shocked. Trunks, noticing, looked over at him. "What is it?" He asked.

Goten looked at the ground. "Well, I... I was certain I had finished her. I mean... I felt her power fade. What happened?"

Trunks looked up at the two warriors, hitting each other very hard. "I don't know... maybe she regenerates? You know, like Majin Buu."

"I don't think... I hope it's nothing like that," Goten said, eyes wide.

"Yeah," Trunks responded. I know what you mean.

Both boys looked up again at the yell of: "Kamehameha!"

Gohan, feet embedded in the ground, had just launched an amazingly powerful Kamehameha wave at the girl. Dust and rock flew, were torn away from his spot on the ground as the energy burst forth from his outstretched hands. She floated above Gohan, watching the wave as it approached.

When it was very close, she screamed and batted it away from her with her left fist, coming down at Gohan. He smiled, cutting off the beam, feeling now how much energy she had expended in that attack.

He caught her fist, and slammed her into the ground behind him, rising into the air and blasting her with thousands of yellow ki blasts.

Gohan floated in the air, face grim as he poured ki blasts onto the body of the girl, which he could now barely see. He stopped, forming a large ball on his hand.

Suddenly, she rushed out of the hole and floated above Gohan, her breathing perilously ragged. Gohan looked up at her, the ball of energy still charged on his right hand.

She raised her right hand above her head, gritting her teeth. A ball of black energy, which Gohan could not feel, flashed into existence above her outstretched palm.

Both fighters threw their balls of energy simultaneously.

The black ball cut through Gohan's energy ball, swallowing it completely. Before Gohan could react, he threw his hands up, there was a black flash, and he was gone.

Trunks and Goten stood in awe. "He... he vanished..." Goten noted.

The girl smiled nightmarishly at Trunks and Goten, who now stood, facing her. Goten was furious. "What did you do to him!?" He screamed, going Super Saiyajin immediately. He stood, teeth clenched at the girl.

Before she could react, he was in the air before her, ramming his fist into her face. She slid along the ground, stopping abruptly as Goten kicked her stomach, driving her into a rapidly forming crater. When she was several hundred feet down, he came out of the hole, turning flips in the air.

He stopped, hands together behind his back. "Kamehameha!" He yelled, thrusting his arms forward and unleashing a devastating Kamehameha wave. It barrelled into the middle of the crater, widening it as it exploded brilliantly on impact, Goten floating high above, arms still outstretched.

The world held its breath for several tense minutes.

And then, there was an explosion as the girl rocketed out of the hole, ready to hit Goten several times very harshly.

Trunks flew in front of his winded friend. "Why don't you try _me _out?"

The girl smiled a hateful smile.

Goku and Vegeta stared in shock and surprise at the tall, newly-arrived Super Saiyajin. He smiled at Goku. "You must be Son Goku," he said, noncommittally, as though unsure about it.

"Uh... yeah... that's me..." Goku said, staring at the awesome power this man wielded, at least equal to his own.

"Hm?" The tall warrior said suddenly, looking around warily. "Goku! Do you feel that!?"

"They're still alive!" Goku realised suddenly.

"Hn?" Was all Vegeta managed, through his anger at the presence of another Super Saiyajin. At least he was only level 1. "What are you talking about!?" He squeezed out through clenched teeth. "I blew those creatures into oblivion! Nothing can survive my Big Bang Atta..." Vegeta was cut short as a fully revitalised long-haired warrior rushed at him faster than he could react, and positively boiled with anger that Tennin had just blocked the blow.

Deflecting the punch to the side, he balled the fist of his right arm, which he had used to block, and whipped it back across the boys face. The boy was knocked back and floated, holding his nose. The other boy rushed at Tennin and barrelled into his stomach with a powerful head-butt, emptying the Super Saiyajins lungs and causing him to ache. The other boy, the long-haired one, now charged in, as both boys began punching and kicking Tennin as they had Goku earlier in the day.

Tennin, who was getting very annoyed at all this, did something imperceptible and yelled loudly, performing a Kiai which propelled both boys several thousand feet away, both slightly unconscious. Tennin, knowing they would circle around and come back at him, quickly used the time to power up.

To Vegeta's extreme ire, he ascended, there and then, to Super Saiyajin 2. With very little effort, he then went up to Super Saiyajin 3, yellow energy flaring around his long hair.

"What!?" Vegeta screamed loudly, releasing a bit of spittle. "Only you can do that, Kakarot!"

Goku floated beside the Saiyajin Prince, hands on his hips. "Well, apparently not anymore!"

_What did he do to get that sudden burst of power?_ Goku thought to himself. _Did he use... could he have used the Kaio-Ken Attack? This guy sure is full of surprises. I wonder what he'll shock us with next._

Tennin floated in the air, looking proud and powerful as a Super Saiyajin 3. His opponents approached him at libido-decreasing speeds. Sensing a slight differential in their proximity to him, he whipped to his right, delivering a crushing blow to the short-haired boys face, narrowly ducking the flying kick of the long-haired boy, leaving him above Tennin.

Tennin expertly whipped the arm he had just used to deliver a punch with up, elbowing the long-haired boy in the stomach. The boy floated in the air, holding his stomach, as Tennin phased out and appeared above him, knocking him out cold with a two-fisted blow to the ground. He quickly whipped to his right, kicking the other to the ground.

He floated there, staring down at his prostrate opponents, and looked up at Goku and Vegeta.

Vegeta grimaced. "Not another one. Nice job, but you forgot to finish it!" Vegeta blasted the prostrate bodies of the two boys, incinerating them for a second time. "And stay dead!" He shouted.

"What causes you to believe they won't just revive again?"

"Hmph!" Vegeta snorted. "Nothing can survive my blast twice!"

"I agree with our new friend, Vegeta," Goku said. Tennin looked at the warrior, surprised. Goku shook his head and looked at Tennin. "Hey! Super Saiyajin 3! Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

Tennin smiled a contented, fulfilled smile. "I would love to, but there is still one more of those power signatures..."

"Oh yeah!" Goku said. "Let's see, who's over there?" He stroked his chin as if in thought. "Hm... Trunks... Goten... where's Gohan?" Goku looked frantically at Vegeta. "Vegeta, do you feel Gohan anywhere!?"

Vegeta shook his head. "I've not felt him in some time, Kakarot."

Goku sighed. "He must have died. Oh well!" Following this, Goku gave a carefree shrug of his shoulders which utterly bewildered Tennin. "All the more reason we better get over there! You better come with us, um... what was your name?"

"Oh ah... Tennin."

"Great! Nice to meet you, Tennin! Thanks for saving my hide a while ago!"

Goku and Vegeta flew off to the Northeast, as the mysterious Tennin followed.

Several minutes after they left, a large fish surfaced in a lake not far away, a bead of sweat sliding off its brow, the relief evident in its eyes. It then got scared by the sky, which it did every five minutes or so, and hid underwater.

Piccolo was now flying with all the speed he could muster towards the final battlefield in today's impromptu attack. He had been watching the battle quietly until Gohan's power had disappeared.

The powerful Namekian flew over landscape, scarcely seeing what lay below. He had always harboured secret fear of anything powerful enough to defeat Gohan, and wondered what in the hell they must be dealing with. The parts of him that belonged to Kami and Nail had nothing to say about it, unusually.

Piccolo's sharp eyes turned southward, towards the three incredible powers he felt approaching Gohan's former location. Two he recognised, Vegeta and Goku, but just who was the third? His strength was incredible, whoever he was. The determined Namekian piled on the speed, rocketing as fast as possible towards the place where he knew that Trunks and Goten were preparing to renew his acquaintance with someone he wanted very much to never ever _ever_ see again: Gotenks.

Trunks desperately exchanged blows with the blue-skinned girl, a normal practice in martial arts which had currently degraded to mean that he frantically tried to block a flurry of blows from his opponent.

He was currently enjoying a bout of success, but feared for his consciousness when his luck turned.

Trunks would have liked more than anything at that point to have the girl away from him, to give himself a chance at least to go Super Saiyajin, but she insisted on granting him not even that.

Instead, she kept raining down a flurry of blows which he had to work extremely hard to block.

The girl punched him right in the nose. He flew back and slid in the grass, rolling skilfully to a stop beside Goten, who had already fought her as a Super Saiyajin and failed.

"Well," Trunks said, wiping the blood from his face, "seems to me that we only have two options."

"Yeah!" Goten said, forcefully. Then, a moment later: "Uh... what are they?"

Trunks frowned at his friend, still trying absent-mindedly to stem the flow of blood from his nose. "Well, either we gang up on her, which probably won't work any better than this has been doing... or... we can call on our old friend..."

"Oh yeah!" Goten said, loosening up his right arm. "I don't know," he began, mockingly. "You think you're up to it?"

"I'm feeling just fine!" Trunks said, standing his full height beside his friend. "Ready!?"

"Whenever you are!"

"Alright!" The boys said, in sync, assuming the positions.

The girl looked on curiously as they spoke together. "Fusion..."

"Um... pardon me, Goku?" Tennin said to Goku as they flew towards the battlefield.

"Oh! Yeah, what?" Goku responded, quickly.

Tennin looked forward, towards their destination. "Forgive me for judging, but... shouldn't you be more concerned about the death of your son?"

"Oh, well... we can just bring him back with the Dragonballs." Tennin stared at Goku in consternation.

"Uh... what are the Dragonballs?" Tennin asked, the wind whipping his long Super Saiyajin 3 hair out behind him.

"Wow!" Goku said. "Why _did_ you come here? I mean, a lot of people come for the Dragonballs."

"I came to belong..." Tennin said quietly.

"Whaddya mean belong?" Goku asked him.

"Well, you see, Goku... I'm your half-brother." Goku's eyes widened with shock, but he didn't stop flying.

His face lit up with a smile. "That's great!" He said. "Hey Vegeta!" He shouted behind him. "Didja hear that!? This guy is my half-brother!"

Vegeta, behind them, snorted. "That would explain his total inability to finish a fight!" He shouted.

As Goku was preparing a barrage of questions for the newcomer, he was shocked at feeling a power he had not felt for some time...

"Ha!" Both shouted at once, flawlessly performing the Fusion Dance. The familiar glow enveloped their bodies as light sprang forth, then receded, throwing a cloud of dust in its wake. When the light and the cloud receded, the girl stared at her cocky new challenger.

"Well, it would probably work out better if you just gave up now," the new challenger noted, the strange blend of two voices almost utterly bewildering the girl.

Gotenks leaned forward, obviously waiting for an answer. "Hm... no comment, huh? Well, if that's the way you want it..." He effortlessly ascended to Super Saiyajin, cycling through the stages in several seconds, reaching three before five had passed.

The girl was becoming increasingly unhappy, and making no secret of it.

She speedily charged up another ball of pure black energy and threw it at Gotenks fiercely. Wishing to avoid his friend/brothers fate, he shot up into the air as it flew through his after-image.

Behind Gotenks, it pulled a mountain out of existence, but the fused warrior failed to notice that as he punched the girl in the face, bringing blood spurting from her nose. She staggered back, struggling to regain her balance, but was unable to regain it before Gotenks grabbed her head and used it to hit his knee with.

More blood flowed from her face as Gotenks smashed his knee into it. Rising into the air, he delivered a roundhouse kick to the girl, sending her flying away, sliding along the ground.

Gotenks dropped to the ground, extending his hand towards the girl, not even giving her time to stop sliding, and preparing to unceremoniously blast her into oblivion. Smiling as the energy formed on his outstretched hand, Gotenks spoke to the girl for what he thought would be the last time. "Say goodnight!"

He released the blast, rock and dirt kicking up in a formidable cloud of dust behind him. The yellow blast rocketed towards it's target, who was only now passing through the rubble and dust of her trip along, and into the ground, rolling along, unconscious. She wouldn't even have had time to stop moving before it was over.

"NO!" Came a cry, and at that moment, a streak of black came in from the left, and the tall, formidable Super Saiyajin 3 Tennin interposed himself between the girl and the ball of energy.

Gotenks eyes widened as the energy impacted with Tennin's outstretched arms, thick cords of muscle rippling as his set posture was thrown back by several centimetres. All of the detritus that had been laying on the ground all around blasted far off like dangerous shards of glass in the hot wind caused by the energy of the ball against that of the Saiyajin.

Tennin poured energy out of his body and into the thin shield protecting him from incineration, his yell echoing all around the mountains.

The Saiyajin warrior gave a last, mighty yell as he leaned into the ball, and threw it upwards, where it rocketed off into space and exploded brilliantly.

Tennin stood to his full, intimidating height, and stared at Gotenks in that way that Super Saiyajins had of staring, which tended to make most sane people a bit fluttery. "That was very rash," he said reproachfully. "You were so focused on your own fight that you didn't even take time to sense for other enemies. I bet you didn't even know _we_ were here until you saw me."

Gotenks was indignant, all the more so because Tennin spoke the truth. He sensed everyone _now_, Goku and Vegeta floating about one-hundred feet above, and Piccolo standing on a rocky precipice not far away. But he hadn't before. He sighed with frustration. "Who the hell are you?" He asked indignantly.

"Goten!" Goku shouted. "You shouldn't talk like that!" He folded his arms as he looked down at the half of his son he fancied he was currently talking to. "What would Chi-Chi think?"

"Oh, shut _up_, Kakarot. He's my son too. A healthy swear here and there is good for everyone. And I think your son is getting too old for that woman's coddling." His hard, sharp eyes shifted to Tennin. "And besides, that half-brother of yours gets on my nerves. If that's even what he is."

Tennin prepared to respond to Gotenks' question, but was interrupted by a shout. "He's right, Gotenks!" Piccolo said, reprovingly. "You are _far_ too confident!" The Namekian flew from his place atop the precipice, lighting not far from Tennin. Goku and Vegeta dropped to the ground, walking over to the general area where everyone seemed to congregate.

Piccolo looked at the newcomer, Tennin, was impressed by his size, power, and control, and then to Goku and Vegeta.

He looked back at Tennin. "So who exactly are you, anyway?"

Tennin shifted back to his normal form, his unruly white hair reverting to shoulder-length. He smiled and blushed slightly. "Oh, my name's Tennin. I'm uh... Goku's half-brother..."

Piccolo smiled. "I would believe it. But why didn't you want our over-confident friend here to kill this girl?"

"Yeah!" The unfortunately still-fused Gotenks chimed in. "I'd like to know that myself."

"Because," Goku said, stealing the spotlight. "Killing them only makes them stronger. Tennin had to take care of two that Vegeta finished off..."

"Yes," said Vegeta. "And then... I had to finish them off again!" Vegeta crossed his arms and turned his back. "You must be from Kakarot's family tree. You're just like him."

"Maybe we should..." Goku began to reluctantly suggest.

"No," Piccolo said firmly. "I understand why Tennin wants her alive now. They have evil in them, but it just happens to be winning out over the good. Somebody is controlling them."

Gotenks had joined Vegeta in the pissed off and not talking corner of the conversation, until the fusion suddenly split.

Vegeta looked over his shoulder. "There you are, Trunks." He said to his son, who looked more sheepish than several herds of sheep. Goten stood on the right, looking the same.

"Yep, it's me..." Trunks said.

Vegeta stared at him for a moment and then turned away. "Trunks, Bulma and I will be having dinner at your house tonight, Kakarot." Vegeta then made a full turn and stared at Tennin. "I want to be there for the story."

"Yeah," Goku said, "I think we all want that!" He turned to Tennin. "Would you mind, big brother?"

"Oh, actually I'm your little brother..."

"Huh?" Goku said. He stepped close to Tennin, and ran his hand from the top of his highest hair spike to around Tennin's chin. "But... you're at least two feet taller than me... are you sure?"

Tennin blushed again. "Uh, no... I mean I'm younger than you... seven or eight years younger."

"Oh well, you should've said so!" Goku said jovially. Goku leaned over so he could see Piccolo. "Hey, Piccolo, you coming to dinner?"

"I wouldn't miss this," he said, smiling.

"Hey, Goten!" Goku said, suddenly remembering a pressing matter. "What happened to Gohan?"

Goten looked at his father. "I... don't really know, dad. It's like he disappeared."

"You mean you think he's still alive?" Goku asked.

"I... don't really know..."

"We'll worry about it later, then." Goku concluded. "Well, ready everyone?" He addressed all present.

"I've got to take this girl to Kami-Sama's Lookout," Tennin said. He smiled at Goku, who was, in fact, his half-brother. "I know where you're at, I'll be there."

"Alright then," Goku said, smiling and waving. "See ya soon!" Goku, Piccolo, and Vegeta took off. Tennin stood for a moment and watched them go.

"So that's my brother," he thought, the wind their flight had kicked up whipping his hair about. Tennin smiled and chuckled to himself. "He's far different from what I expected. All those 'strongest in the universe' rumours made me think he was so shrewd and calculating, but he actually seems a little crazy." He looked behind him, at the prostrate, now-peaceful form of the girl, and though: "Maybe I _can_ belong here." He smiled happily as he scooped up the girl and used Shunkanidou to reach Kami's Lookout.

There was darkness.

There was darkness that penetrated into his very being, which held to the edges of his mind, and beyond that, his consciousness. It overwhelmed his senses, he saw, felt, smelled, even, strangely, heard, darkness. The darkness was complete, and although he knew that at sometime he had been something, somewhere else, at the moment darkness was all that was or is or ever could be.

There was power in the darkness. Diffuse power, not coherent enough to bear any menace or level any threats, but an incredible power. A dark power. A dark power which floated in the darkness, trying, perhaps, to bring cohesion to itself. It's agents were near. They were scattered all about this place of darkness, and they were coming for him. Just as the darkness was in his senses, so they were a part of the darkness, and he could feel them coming for him.

They were to latch to him like parasitic beasts, leeching what life remained in him from his body and leaving only the darkness, the single, inevitable, overwhelming darkness. And even as he knew this to be true of them they were there, latching onto him, taking him into the darkness, showing him the mind of the darkness, a mind that was not a mind, a mind of things that did not exist.

He screamed in pain and agony, and all that came was darkness.

But without warning, rudely, horribly, a scream louder than his could be heard, a scream that breaks glass, that hurt him, which abruptly stopped. Then there was nothing.

Tennin landed outside of Goku and Chi-Chi's home about half-an-hour after the battle, and was surprised to see it crawling with life. Light poured from the several windows, the chimney emitting a pleasant-smelling aroma. From within the sound of muted voices could be heard, and laughter, something which Tennin had not heard often in his life, but always enjoyed. Very cosy, he thought to himself.

And yet, he had trouble approaching the door. Life, he knew for a fact, did not tend to lead him towards those who actually enjoyed the sight of him. How did he know this would be any different? He supposed it was a calculated risk, like most others.

Against his inner warnings that told him how things would turn out, he approached the door. As he was preparing to knock, it opened.

A short, pretty woman with short, blue hair looked up at him. She wore bell bottoms and a halter top. Her cheeks flushed slightly. "Who are you?" She said, staring up at the very tall man.

"Oh... my name is Tennin." He shook a lock of his shaggy white hair from his enticing orange eye.

"Oh!" The woman said, opening the door and putting her hands on her hips. "So you're Goku's half brother." She cocked her head and stared at him for a moment. Tennin stood awkwardly, having not even the slightest conceptualisation of what to do. She smiled sweetly. "Hmm. You're much cuter than Goku _ever_ was."

Tennin flushed deeply and Bulma giggled. "What do you mean by that?" He said.

Bulma opened her mouth to speak, but was suddenly pushed out of the way by an exuberant, and honestly very slightly tipsy, Goku. "Hey, Tennin!" He gave a huge, open-mouth smile as only he could. "We've all been waiting for you!"

"How rude!" Bulma said, from her place on the floor.

Goku completely ignored her. "Come on in!" Goku pulled his half-brother inside by the arm.

Tennin just managed to duck the doorway, something he was used to doing because of his height. Inside, he saw a room where the pleasant smells from the chimney were stronger, filled with a lot of people. The amount of people made him nervous, as he was aware they would all be there for him.

Tennin spent an altogether very enjoyable half-hour being introduced to the friends and family of his half-brother. They all seemed very kind, but he picked up on several spiritual signals from them. Chi-Chi was forced to like Tennin, as he was polite and not at all offensive. Tennin was particularly happy with Pan, as he had always found kids amusing. Over that time he was introduced to everybody, except Gohan, who had disappeared in the fight that day.

The very cosiness of his half-brother's life shocked Tennin. He wanted, badly, to belong with these people. He was even beginning to feel he did. Tennin already felt close to his brother and some of the others, having already fought with them in battle. Just as he began to get into the conversation, to laugh at the others jokes and tell a few of his own, Vegeta spoke up. "So, why don't you tell us your story, then?"

There were murmurs of agreement from around the room. Tennin didn't particularly want to remember his story, but decided that he at least owed an explanation to these people, since he had just come along and dropped into their lives all of a sudden. "Yeah!" Goku agreed. "Let's go into the living room and hear it. Is that okay with you, Tennin?"

"Well, my story is nothing special..." The general response to this statement was one along the lines of 'nonsense, of course it is.'

"Well, alright," Tennin conceded.

Several minutes later, Tennin sat in the air in the midst of the living room, everybody else sitting quietly, waiting for him to begin.

He looked around at all of them with his gripping orange eyes. He had relaxed by now, certain that these people were not going to judge him or reject him unless he gave them a particularly good reason to do so.

As he began to recall the memories of his life, others in the room felt his thoughts, saw parts of these memories, and felt their interest in this mysterious Saiyajin grow.

Tennin opened his mouth, and spoke into the silence.


	2. The Tale of Tennin

Chapter 2 

The Tale of Tennin

In Original Japanese:

Tennin's Account!! Mysterious Visitors Arrive!!

(See Chapter 1 for a lengthy explanation of this title.)

I left out some stuff in the first chapter, so here it is: 

Disclaimer

I am not Akira Toriyama. I did not create, write, or illustrate Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, or (thankfully) Dragon Ball GT. I did not create any of the characters featured therein and both the characters and all respective likenesses thereof are the sole property of Shueisha/Bird Studios and Toei animation. The characters Tennin, Mirabi, Tennin's father, Genshu, Torren, the Shadow Kids, and Mushube are solely my property, and may not be used or reproduced without my express permission, or unless, strictly in the case of written fanfic, you acknowledge that they are mine. This applies STRICTLY in the case of written fanfiction. I mean, if you like them well enough to write fanfic featuring them, I'd be flattered. Knock yourselves out. But, I digress. I guess that's it.

Well, now that crap is all finished, on with Chapter 2!

"When the Saiya-jin home-world, Planet Vegeta, was destroyed, Goku's and my mother, Mirabi, died. Mirabi was a kind woman and a powerful Saiya-jin warrior." Tennin's eyes went down to the floor, and everyone present felt their eyes sting a bit with his sadness. "But her hands were not clean of blood. None of the Saiya-jins were."

He looked back up, straight into the eyes of Videl, who happened to be sitting on the sofa in front of him. She started slightly as his intense orange eyes met hers. "For her kindness and caring she was allowed to keep her body in the afterlife. She tried to find Goku's father, but during her search was noticed by a Kai from far away, who fell in love with her and took her as his concubine." Videl started in shock once again at this. "She went willingly," he continued, looking down. "At least, she said she did, but I expect that she never felt she could circumvent the will of a Kai in the afterlife."

Tennin sighed and continued. "I was born. . . um, probably when you were about seven or eight, Goku. My birth was an unusual and fearful event for the Kai. A Kai is not supposed to be able to impregnate someone from another race, and yet here I was."

"Wait a minute," said Goku, raising his hand. "Are you a Kai?"

Tennin looked up at his brother and smiled. "Not really. I'm virtually a pure-blooded Saiya-jin. Only about 5 percent of my genetic code is Kai."

"Goku!" Chi-Chi said. "Be quiet and let your brother speak!"

Goku's shoulders and eyes drooped. "Sorry, Chi-Chi," he said, his voice as sheepish as his face.

Tennin smiled until Chi-Chi looked at him and nodded. "Anyway," he started again, "my father, whose name I don't know and don't care to know, was surprised at my birth and ashamed that he had spoiled the bloodline of the Kai." There was a sense of loathing in Tennin's words, and the others felt his emotions once more, growing slightly angry. "He... left me on a planet called Nubion when I was just an infant." Tennin smiled with heavy sarcasm. "He left me to be raised by the kindest of caretakers. I was raised in the Nubian Battle Arena, trained as a fighting slave in the Arena Style of Yubo. I was extremely good at it, and learned to either beat my opponents quickly, or go hungry."

Tennin's eyes now seemed empty and distant, and everyone felt sympathy for him as they sensed the emotional detachment with which he viewed this part of his life. "When I was four I officially entered the Arena. I quickly became popular, but never killed unless absolutely necessary. I became a Super Saiya-jin when I was five, and just kept ascending. I was eventually awarded the status of Saibot. A Saibot was a slave, but an important, especially appreciated, and high-ranking slave. When I was twelve, a strange man came to the Arena and challenged me. The only time I ever lost was to my father, who came and 'rescued' me from the arena."

He looked around. "I use the word 'rescue' sparingly, because my father had a slightly more explosive idea of rescues than is usually considered common. I had a collar around my neck, which would explode when it left a certain sensor radius. He threw me far away from the arena, and, when I survived the explosion, he decided I was worthy to train with him. He trained me in the arts of the Kai for the next four years, and I also spent time with my mother. Apart from seeing my father, those were the most wonderful four years of my life, and the next ten were even better. I really got to know Mirabi in those years, once my father left me alone. She taught me about the noble, but flawed, Saiya-jin race, and about their fighting style."

He looked up at Vegeta, who had only just become displeased. "What do you mean, _flawed_!?" He asked, stewing.

Tennin smiled. "Although the Saiya-jin race has a noble and proud tradition, they committed acts of mass genocide all over the universe. To me, that makes them flawed."

Buruma tried Chi-Chi's approach, but was quieter about it. "Vegeta! Pipe down! Geez!"

"Hey, you guys, this is a good story, could ya kinda try not to ruin it?" Kuririn interjected.

Tennin smiled, which made everyone happy. "There really isn't much left to tell. I figured I had been hanging around with dead people long enough, so for the next four years I wandered around space, having adventures of my own. I just never found a place where I could. . . belong."

Tennin began to end his story. "Eventually, I came here, because I knew you were my brother and had heard stories about you, Goku. Honestly, I expected you to be much scarier than you are."

Goku laughed slightly. "And, that's about it," Tennin continued. "I came here to find a place on this planet. That's all I want."

"That's... such a sad story..." Goku said, honestly feeling for his brother.

"Yeah..." Buruma said. "I've never known that people actually go through those sorts of things."

Everyone sat in silence for a moment, all slightly sad about Tennin's story. "Uh..." he began, "I... hope I didn't kill the mood as completely as I seem to have done." He smiled. "Cheer up, everyone!" Everyone looked at him. "That's in the past, and I'm done with it. I came here to start again." He dropped to the ground once again, and turned to Buruma. "And I would like to start by asking you out."

Everyone smiled and chuckled at this, except for Vegeta, who seemed to be relatively unhappy about the idea.

"Uh..." Buruma said, awkwardly. "Normally, I'd love to, but..."

Trunks was turning red trying to hold in his laughter. Finally he let it explode. He pointed at his mother through painful spasms of laughter. "You asked my mom out!"

Tennin was very confused by this reaction. "Is she in a dry spell or something?" He asked earnestly. At this, the room exploded with laughter, until Vegeta spoke up.

"Married would be a better guess!" He yelled, angrily.

"Oh!" Tennin said. His face screwed up oddly. "To you? Yes, to you..." he said, sensing for the first time their spiritual connection. "That's gotta be a screwed up relationship."

At this point, the laughter increased to such a level that Kuririn fell over the edge of the couch, and lay on his head, giggling.

Only Vegeta was not laughing. "It's getting late!" He said, louder than necessary. "Let's go, Buruma!"

Everyone left over the next hour or so. Tennin was welcomed by the still-bemused Goku and Chi-Chi to take Gohan's room, until they could figure out what had become of him.

Some time afterwards, Goten was sneaking off to bed, desperately hoping to avoid his mother. He stalked quietly through the kitchen, wondering if she was there, moving like a spikey-haired shadow.

He did not see her creep out. "I heard you cut out of school today, Goten!" Chi-Chi's voice stopped him in his tracks.

Goten looked over his shoulder anxiously. Chi-Chi wore her usual angry face. She sighed. "What am I going to do with you? You're getting too old for me to discipline you. This is all your fathers fault!" She turned, angrily, arms folded, which worried Goten more than a burst of rage would have. "Oh... just go to bed!"

"Mom..." Goten started, but Chi-Chi interrupted him.

"Goodnight, Goten," She said, indignantly retiring to her room.

Goten stood in the kitchen for a moment, not sure of what to do.

A voice came from behind him. "Don't worry about it, kid. She just hates to see you growing up."

Goten looked and saw his newfound uncle, Tennin, standing in the doorway, being tall and looking self-assured. "How would you know that?" He asked.

Tennin shrugged. "I can sense things," he gestured towards Goku and Chi-Chi's bedroom. "And your mom is really easy to read, even if I couldn't. She'll probably be alright in the morning." The tall man yawned and spoke once more. "Later, Goten." He waved as he turned and walked off to bed.

When Tennin was gone, Goten smiled. He liked his new uncle.

Goku and Chi-Chi's home in East District was not a difficult place to sleep.

Tennin was rapidly discovering this, laying in Gohan's room, experiencing a level of comfort, relaxation, and fulfilment that could only be referred to as abject. It was just the right temperature, and just the right amount of noise penetrated the walls to tell you that there was a breathing wilderness sleeping without being annoying.

He understood why his brother was so happy, living in a place like this. Tennin already felt as though he had lived here, with his brother's family, for years. He knew for a fact that he wanted to. Tennin yawned once more into the darkness, a drowsy, dreaming relaxation taking him as he slipped into dreams of the waking world, the curtains fluttering in the warm summer breeze.

All around him, loved ones slept.

In the mountains where Gohan had fought with the girl, the dust from their battle was only just settling. Detritus and debris left over from the titanic struggle lay strewn about the mountain range for miles. The ancient sentries of rock, weathered and wind-beaten, that overlooked the ground stood as a reminder that the damage would heal. Rock would weather rock and wind would rub it dry with sand until no traces of the confrontation remained.

Somewhere deep in the silent, sleeping mountains, a light flickered. It was a sickly, pale light, that cast a cadaver-like pallor about the ground in front of it. It was a small oval of light that opened within a crater where a large standing rock had used to be, before it was wiped out of existence. The light flickered for a moment, and then grew steady. Small, nocturnal rodents squeaked worriedly and scurried away from it, hid from its now-steady glow.

It stood there for a moment, as the wind blew, like it was waiting for something to happen. And then, the light was dimmed by a shadow, a shadow that passed from out of the light, a tall, indistinct form with a body draped over its shoulders.

Setting the body down gently, the shadowy figure extended a hand towards the oval of light, and stood patiently. For several more moments, there was nothing, and the wind had chosen to go silent.

Then, a shadowy hand shot out of the light, dimming its glow once more as the first figure caught the hand and pulled. A smaller figure fell into its arms, a figure draped in shadow and obviously exhausted. The second figure extended an arm, thin and graceful, towards the pale door, out of which a shard of brilliant green light floated, settling in the figures hand; it's glow subsiding as it sunk into the shadows. The pale, sickly light disappeared, as the shadowy figures spoke hurriedly and quietly.

The smaller figure held to the taller, as both flew off to the Southwest.

The knock wasn't anything remotely like loud, but after a certain state of unconsciousness, the mind is shocked by any noise. Tennin sat bolt upright in bed, stirred from out of a dream about pasta and girls with large breasts. He sat for a moment, not believing his sharp hearing.

The polite, quiet knock, a knock which would have awoken nobody not possessed of Tennin's superior hearing, came again. Sensing that everybody else was asleep, he rolled from bed, pulling pants on and immediately stubbing his toe on a protruding section of the wall that he was certain had not been there when the light was on.

Suppressing the need to swear extremely loud, Tennin went slowly down the stairs, taking them one by one, drowsily.

The knock came again.

Tennin reached the door and opened it.

He had been drowsy, but what he now saw, or rather, one of the things he now saw, woke him with surprising expediency.

Before the Saiya-jin stood three people, or more accurately, two people stood, with a third draped, unconscious, across the shoulders of the less grippingly lovely of the other two. The unconscious party was a dubiously living Gohan, who had no outer wounds but much more than that, Tennin could sense.

Gohan was draped carefully across the shoulders of a tall, proud-looking man with very long white hair, no shirt, white pants, black boots, and a sword slung across his back. He had tan skin, and engaging green eyes. Around his waist a black sash was tied.

The more engaging of the two, the one that had fully awoken Tennin, was a woman, shorter than either of the others, but not too short. She had long white hair as well, and wore a hooded cloak. The hood, currently, was down. She had pointed ears, both of them did, looked very tired, and was unbelievably, amazingly, almost painfully beautiful. She was leaning heavily on a simple, unadorned staff.

Tennin chose this moment to speak. "Uh... hi," he managed.

The man stared at him for a moment. "May we come in?"

The woman eyed him angrily and spoke. "Hello..." she began, but fell short when her green eyes met Tennin's engaging orange ones. Both of them flushed deeply and then smiled, bewildered. "I. . . I'll start again," she said. "Hello. My name is Genshu. This is my guardian Torren," the tall man gave a short bow. "Please excuse his rudeness. We have brought your. . ." She stopped and thought hard for a moment, biting her lip so that it bunched up enticingly. "Oh!" She said, suddenly. ". . .kinsman. . ." she emphasised the word proudly. "Back to you." Seeing Tennin smiling at her slightly, she blushed, looked at her feet, and said: "Your language is new to me. I apologise... if I have got it wrong."

"Oh uh. . ." Said Tennin, feeling non-verbal in the presence of this person he wanted simply to look at. He was trying, currently, to articulate a way to say that he was in love, and that additionally he simply _had_ to go to bed with her as soon as possible. What he came out with was: "Ah. Is that all you've come for?"

"Oh. . . no. We have come very far," she began, earnestly. "To warn you."

Tennin looked up at the sky, which had chosen this moment to get stormy. "Why don't you warn us inside?"

"Yes... very well," Genshu agreed, smiling and stepping in. Torren laid Gohan on the couch and immediately stood by the door. Genshu collapsed in a chair, looking as tired as she was.

Tennin stood awkwardly and stared at these two extraordinary people, one of whom he found particularly extraordinary in many extraordinary ways. "Why don't I go wake the others?" He offered, kindly.

Genshu nodded, trying to stay awake.

Several minutes and several unhappy conversations later, Chi-Chi and Goku staggered down the stairs, followed by a seemingly zombie-esque Goten. Goku collapsed into a chair not far from where Genshu sat, groggily paying attention. Chi-Chi, too tired to care if anybody saw her, collapsed heavily into Goku's lap and threw her arms around his neck, snuggling her face into his chest and making unintelligible noises about trying to sleep on orange things. Goten collapsed down beside Tennin and fell asleep rather obviously, snoring.

Chi-Chi had been restrained from making too great of a fuss about Gohan, whose condition Tennin had told her was bad but quickly added that it would subside. All three were in their nightclothes, Chi-Chi wearing a long nightgown that did nothing to show off her still-stunning figure, Goku, Tennin, and Goten all dressed in pants and nothing else. Torren stood quietly by the door despite Chi-Chi's groggy insistence that he sit down.

After everyone was through being grumpy and tired, Genshu looked around at all of them. "Which. . . one of you is Goku?" She asked, looking from Tennin to Goku. "Spiritually, you feel very similar."

"I'm. . .hungry. . ." Goku mouthed drowsily, his eyes only half-open. He made a loud snoring noise and then quickly added: "I mean. . . Goku. . ." dozing and then waking up.

Genshu gave a sweet smile. "I apologise that I have awoken you. But you should stay awake for what I have to say," despite her sweet demeanour, she spoke with strength and purpose. "It is very important."

"Yes, we realise that," Tennin said, maturely. "Go on."

"Yes..." Genshu looked at the floor, and made Tennin light-headed with her beauty. "My name is Genshu, Torren is my guardian. We are Mikkon. We are a race whose sole purpose for the last ten thousand years has been to stop a great evil known as Mushube. Mushube is an ancient pan-dimensional being, who has laid waste to billions of realities. He is currently travelling to your dimension, and is a great danger to you all. Mushube destroyed our entire dimension, along with our home world Mikkona.

I am known as the Itton, or sword, of my people. I am part of a long line of specially-trained magic-users whose destiny is to seal Mushube." Pain filled her beautiful face. "I... have already made an attempt and failed once..."

Tennin blinked. "What... do you mean?"

She looked up at him, and he could see the pain through the resolute strength in her eyes. "Our entire plane of reality was destroyed as a result of my failure. I do not intend to fail again."

Goku yawned broadly. "So, this Mushube guy, he's pretty strong, huh?" Genshu just nodded, apparently finished speaking. "When's he gonna get here?" Goku continued.

"It will not be for some time..." Genshu said. "His power has grown so that he cannot travel through dimensions as easily as he once did. Although... he is coming even now. He will arrive in perhaps one to three of your years."

Goku looked at his brother. "We'll all have to start training tomorrow."

"Hopefully, you won't have to fight," said Genshu. "I told you, I do not intend to fail a second time."

Goku stood up and yawned once more. "Well, we're gonna train anyway, right Tennin?"

Tennin nodded. "Of course."

"Oh yeah," Goku said, looking at the prostrate form of Gohan. "How's Gohan?"

"He'll be fine," Tennin said. "He's trapped in darkness right now, but he'll emerge from it."

Goku yawned yet again, louder and less restrained than before. "Man, I've had a long day... I'm going to bed." He looked at Genshu and Torren. "You guys just sleep anywhere you want. Tennin's got Gohan's room, though." Goku walked up to bed, followed by an already-sleeping Goten.

"They are good people," Genshu said to Tennin, who was the only one left.

Tennin smiled awkwardly. "Yeah..."

She returned the smile with less awkwardness. "Sleep well," she told Tennin.

"Oh... you too," he returned. Tennin retreated to bed, not sure if he had said the right thing of any kind at all.

The next day, everyone was back at Goku's house once again, as Genshu retold her story.

"We sure are meeting a lot of new people," Kuririn noted after she had finished and everyone had gone outside to enjoy the sun. "This Mushube guy sounds scary."

Genshu smiled at him, a gesture that would cause most people to go from solid to liquid. "There is no need to fear him," She said. "I will not fail the Sealing a second time."

"Hmph!" Vegeta snorted. "I would prefer to fight this Mushube, as opposed to sealing him away." He leaned forward, speaking adamantly to all present Saiya-jins. "Where is the honour in that!?"

"Honour plays no part in it," Torren broke in. "Mushube must be stopped by whatever means possible."

"I wasn't talking to you, boy!" He said, menacingly.

"Do you have to address me before I develop the capacity for speech?" Torren asked Vegeta with equal menace.

Vegeta stormed after that. "We should start training," he said. "You're coming with me, boy! I'll whip you into shape."

"Yup, everybody," Goku said, loosening his joints up. "We all better decide who's gonna train with who." He looked to his little brother. "Hey Tennin," he said, quieter than was at all necessary.

"Uh... what?" Tennin responded, wondering why Goku was whispering.

"I was hoping we could train together," he said.

Tennin smiled. "Hey, me too!"

"Alright!" Goku shouted exuberantly.

"Alright!" Tennin said as well.

"Come on, boy!" Vegeta thundered to Torren.

Torren looked at Genshu inquisitively. She gave him a half-frown. "Oh, go on, Torren. You know I can take care of myself."

Torren smiled, something which he did only for Genshu. "Alright, then," he said, amusement in his fathomless eyes, and took off after Vegeta.

Genshu frowned at him, her arms crossed.

"So, what are your plans?" Tennin asked her from behind.

She started and turned towards him. "Oh! I must go and prepare..." she began feeling the awkward shyness that she had felt since first meeting him. They stood and smiled at one another for a moment.

"Hey!" Came Goku's voice. "You've got a crush, don't you, little bro?" He laughed excitedly at the prospect. Tennin grit his teeth and blushed, turning to look at his brother.

Genshu was blushing too. "I... I should really go..." she said, flying away. Tennin watched her go and turned to Goku, who was still smiling broadly.

Seeing Tennin's frown, he spoke up. "Uh, hey... what's wrong...?"

Tennin sighed and shook his head. "You aren't the most subtle person on earth, my brother."

Goku laughed and smiled, scratching his head nervously. "No, I guess not..."

Tennin just grinned. "Do you know of a good place to train?"

Goku flared with white energy. "Yeah! Follow me!" He rocketed off into the sky with his brother following.

In the great, grass-covered plains of the central continent, Vegeta and Torren landed, facing each other.

Torren crossed his arms, smiling. "So, what do you _think_ you can teach me?"

Vegeta snorted. "Why don't you show me what you've got, first!?" Almost before he had finished saying that, he had slammed his fist into Torren's face.

Torren stared over Vegeta's fist and into his grinning face in the split-second before both forms became blurry and vanished.

Huge craters bore their way into the docile plain as plates of rock were kicked up by their incredibly fast battle. Vegeta finally reappeared, knocking Torren down to the ground below with a roundhouse kick.

He followed up quickly, racing down into the crater for yet another crushing kick. Torren's hands shot up and caught it, as he quickly whipped his legs up, using his left to push against the knee of the leg he held, barring it so Vegeta could not pull away, and then quickly slamming his right foot up into Vegeta's stomach.

The kick did little but anger the Saiya-jin prince, but the several thousand piston-like blows that followed in less than a second did a bit more. Torren's foot hammered at lightning speeds into Vegeta's abdomen, with Vegeta held in place by Torren's grapple on his right leg. As the last kick hit home, Vegeta bent over Torren's foot, grimacing in pain.

He opened his sharp eyes and growled at the calm fighter. "You're going to. . . pay for that one. . . boy. . ." Vegeta stood bent over for a moment, then reared up to full height, screaming as he drew back his free left leg, preparing to bring it crashing down into Torren's stomach.

As Vegeta's kick sliced down, Torren's eyes widened, and, at the last second, he released Vegeta's leg, phasing out and away.

Heedless, Vegeta screamed loudly and bore down into the crater for fifty feet or so, before leaping back out like a bullet and landing on the opposite side from Torren, facing him again.

The light mist from Vegeta's ki-fueled attack cleared quickly, as he stood staring at Torren.

Torren stared back, breathing hard. Vegeta wasn't even winded. "Hmph," Vegeta snorted, closing his eyes and crossing his arms. "You've got a lot of determination, boy, but you need more power to back it up." He smiled and balled his fists. "We'll work on that one."

"My name is Torren," said Torren, standing at full height, but still looking winded. "What is yours?"

Vegeta smiled. "You don't get to find that one out until you've knocked me down." He dropped his stance, assuming the position that Saiya-jin warriors had used for generations. "Let's go," he said.

Son Goku and Tennin landed on Kami-Sama's Lookout. Tennin looked around worriedly. "This is your great place to train?" He asked, half-heartedly.

"Nah!" Goku said. "Not here, inside the Room of Spirit and Time!" Goku said.

"What's that?" Tennin asked, confused.

Dende came out to greet the brothers. "Hello," he said. "What do you guys need?"

Goku and Tennin looked ad Dende. "Hey, Dende! Tennin and I were hoping to train in the Room of Spirit and Time."

Dende looked concerned. "I'm. . . afraid we had to seal off the time chamber, Goku. You can't go in."

"What?" Asked Goku, confused. "Why not?"

"Because one of those girls came from it. Something strange is happening in there."

Tennin spoke up. "How are they, Dende?"

Dende looked up at Tennin. "They're still asleep. I have no idea what to do for them. They don't sleep well. I can only begin to purge the evil from them. The rest is up to them."

Tennin nodded knowingly. "I see."

Goku was annoyed. "Ah, c'mon, Dende! Are you sure we can't go in there?"

Dende smiled nervously as Goku got face to face with him, invading his personal space. "Absolutely. And, even if there wasn't something weird going on, haven't you already been in twice?"

"Oh yeah, right. . ." said Goku, standing and stroking his chin thoughtfully. He snapped his fingers excitedly after a moment. "Hey, Tennin!" He said, "have you ever heard of Dai Kaio-shin's Planet?"

Tennin looked at Goku and nodded. "Yes. I was there a long time ago. If I'm not mistaken, that was where you defeated Majin Buu."

Goku blushed. "Wow, guess I'm famous, huh?"

Tennin smiled lightly. "Are you suggesting. . . we go there?"

"Yeah!" Said Goku excitedly. He looked at his brother's not-totally-thrilled expression. "Something wrong?" He asked.

"Yes, I can think of a very good reason for us not to go there. . ." he said.

"Um. . . what reason is that? Cause I'm lost," said Goku.

Tennin sighed heavily. "Dai Kaio-shin. Have you ever met him?"

"Yeah, a few times. . ." Goku said, bewildered. "What's wrong with him?"

Tennin looked at Goku, touted as the strongest fighter in the universe, amazed he had to explain this. "He is one of the most crotchety, annoying, chauvinist, crotchety, perverted old men I have ever met. I seriously don't want to see him again."

"Didn't you say 'crotchety' twice?" Goku asked in bewilderment.

"Yes, it's a very important point," Tennin responded tersely.

"Why, did you guys not part on good terms?" Goku asked.

"Good terms!?" Said Tennin crossly. "Last time I talked to him he rambled on _literally_ day in and day out about how I was the promised of the Kai, and how I needed to live up to my destiny and go through that _ridiculous_ ceremony of his."

Goku stared at Tennin. "That ceremony can really help, y'know. . ."

Tennin smiled. "It can't help me," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I already know how to do it. The technique he uses is basically the same as the Kaio-Ken, on a higher level. I can use the power he gives people at will."

Goku smiled back. "So that's what you did when you were fighting those kids. I thought it was something like that. The ability to increase your power that much is pretty impressive." He balled his fists excitedly. "Training with you is gonna be fun!"

Tennin sighed in annoyance. "I suppose I can deal with the bastard," he said, looking to Goku. "You can use Shunkanidou, right?"

Goku nodded and assumed the position, reaching out for Dai Kaio-shin's energy signature. . .

A moment later, they had both vanished.

Genshu walked nervously down the busy streets of Satan City.

She had realised almost immediately that her flowing white robes, indiscriminate beauty, and long, simple wooden staff made her look slightly out of place around here. She looked around warily, slightly intimidated by the tall buildings, cars, power suits and palm trees.

However, Genshu was a strong woman and always had been, and resolved simply to make herself fit in. What she really wanted was to get a feel for the people whose dimension she was trying to save, but beyond that she needed peace and quiet to prepare for the sealing. . .

Even thinking that word brought painful memories to mind.

The events of her last sealing had happened such a short time ago that recalling them to mind was still painful.

They had known he was near for years beforehand, the elders. Genshu had spent twelve years of her long life of study and deprivation preparing to perform the sealing. On that day, her people had cheered her on as they evacuated the planet, leaving only beautiful Genshu and her guardian, Torren, to stand upon the ancient Tower of the Sealing, looking towards the blackness that filled the sky as Mushube arrived, freshly glutted from the blood of another planet.

Her hair and robes had whipped about in the black wind as she stood silently atop the tower, erected millenia ago on the Great Plain of Mikkona by her ancestors. All fear and apprehension had left her as she prepared to do what so many had been trained to do, as she prepared to change the course of history. As Mushube began to manifest, black lightning tore the planet Mikkona to pieces, ripping into the Great Plains and bringing forth a flow of lava that quickly became a flood. Plates of land shifted and moved as the force of the dark one lashed the planet. Such a sudden release of his wrath met that he would destroy Mikkona outright, that there was nothing powerful enough to interest him on Genshu's world.

This omen had filled Genshu with pride. They also meant that he was frightened, apprehensive, that he had no idea what awaited him here. The Tower of the Sealing stood alone in the suffering of Mikkona, protected and upheld by the magic of the Sword. Genshu felt like the most powerful woman in existence at that moment, a powerful woman in a line of powerful women. The Itton had always been a woman, and Genshu was the fifth generation of her family to carry the title. But she was actually to face him, she thought.

As Mushube approached, Genshu stood tall and prepared to begin the sealing. . .

Genshu was shook from her reverie as she bumped into a wall that had not been there a moment before. She stepped back and looked up at the wall. In her deep thought, she saw that she had wandered into an alleyway.

The wall was a man. He was at least a foot taller than Genshu, rough-looking, covered with as many guns and knives as he could stuff onto himself logically. His head was shaven, and Genshu saw and felt herself surrounded by three similar men, to her left and right and behind her.

She looked at them, sensing their intentions immediately, (as though she needed to), but wishing to end the affair without violence.

"May I help you?" She said, addressing all three simultaneously.

The biggest one, in front of her, laughed. His colleagues followed suit, mostly for fear. "You can help me by coming with us and not getting' yourself all damaged. We like em' breathin'." The other men laughed again, obviously from fear, as there are only a very few almost utterly deranged individuals who might have found his last comment amusing.

Genshu put a finger to her lip, thinking, struggling with the language she had had to learn so quickly. "Uh. . . you speak your language oddly. . . I don't understand, could you clarify?"

The man arched his eyebrow as Genshu looked around, quite effectively convincing them she was confused. "I. . . don't think I'll get hurt, if that's what you're worried about," she told them, smiling personably.

The man grinned. "See, what I meant was. . ."

"Are you hurt?" Genshu asked, inquisitively.

"She must be some foreigner," the man said, as Genshu began to feel violence had very little choice but to happen. He smiled at her with all of his teeth. "You're comin' with us," he said. This was a cue for the others to rush her, clumsily, she thought. She sighed, touching her power slightly, creating a hot wind that threw the two at her sides into and through walls, and the one behind her out onto the sidewalk. The biggest one fell back onto his behind rather embarrassingly.

Hearing the one from behind approaching, she quickly threw her robes over him, revealing a grey and white kimono, and spun around, round-house kicking him in the face. As he fell against a wall, unconscious, she gently plucked her robe off of him and sniffed. She looked at the one on the ground. "Don't you guys ever bathe?"

She turned back towards the other, still on the ground, and began walking towards him. He touched a gun on his side, which he apparently thought she couldn't see or something. He eyed her cautiously as she walked past him, and, when she was ten feet or so away from him, he pulled out the gun and shot her in the leg, still hoping to use her as entertainment and wanting her basically undamaged.

The man was surprised, and didn't see what happened, but felt the staff she had been carrying hit him in the face before he lost consciousness.

Genshu caught the staff as it returned to her outstretched hand, holding her soiled robes gingerly in her right hand. She started as she heard sirens. "What are those?" She wondered curiously, walking through the alley.

Vegeta appeared behind Torren, grabbing his arm in a vice-grip and swinging him round. Swinging faster and faster, he finally released Torren across the ground. Torren hit painfully, kicking up rock, grass and dirt with his bare shoulder as he rolled and tumbled to a stop.

Vegeta dropped down, smiling, beside where Torren lay. "Still haven't knocked me down, boy. You're going to need to get better if you plan to face this Mushube that girlfriend of yours talks about."

Torren sat up, and looked at Vegeta. "She's not my girlfriend."

Vegeta cocked his head, curiously. "Casual sex buddy, then?"

Torren suddenly phased out, kicking Vegeta hard in the face with his right leg and appearing above him, blood spraying through the air from Vegeta's lower lip.

While Vegeta was still airborne, Torren flipped over in mid-air, kicking him in the back of the head, sending him flying into the air.

As soon as Vegeta was moving, Torren phased out, appearing above him, and punching him back down to the surface.

Vegeta caused yet another crater with his impact, kicking up a cloud of smoke that was blown away several seconds later as Vegeta went Super Saiya-jin with a mighty yell of power.

He stared at Torren, growling in anger as Torren smiled back. "I knocked you down. . ." he said, whimsically.

Vegeta smiled slowly, then began to laugh. Torren just smiled as Vegeta lost it, quickly regaining his composure. The yellow energy of his Super Saiya-jin form flared up around him as he spoke. "The name's Vegeta. . . lord of all Saiya-jins."

Torren chuckled to himself. "Well, I feel special, Vegeta. . . I've been getting my ass kicked by royalty."

Vegeta laughed again. "Hope you can keep up with a Super Saiya-jin," he said, bending low to the ground in his Saiya-jin stance.

"We'll see," Torren said, assuming a stance.

All was quiet for a moment, then Vegeta rushed at Torren, rocking the earth with an explosion.

Dai Kaio-Shin was fishing.

This meant that he had his pole in the water, and was waiting patiently for something to happen. He called this 'fishing' although there were normally very few if any actual fish involved.

When he heard the high swishing noise and felt the energies behind him, he didn't bother to turn around.

Goku and Tennin stood for a moment, fully expecting to at least be yelled at. They exchanged glances.

Looking back at Dai Kaio-Shin, they were faced with his back, which Tennin had always thought was not so very different from his front.

"Uh. . . Dai. . .?" chanced Tennin at last.

"Hmmmmmm?" Dai Kaio-Shin responded quietly.

"Why are you being so quiet?" Goku asked in what was undeniably the loudest conversational tone anyone had ever used.

Dai Kaio-Shin sat and did not respond for a moment.

Goku walked over. "Hello?" After standing and watching the incredible colour change the ancient God was going through for a moment, Goku said: "Hm." He then turned to Tennin. "Hey, do you think he's finally lost his hearing?"

Dai Kaio-Shin had by this time turned a deep, abiding shade of red. Tennin smiled. "Maybe. If he has, then we can finally say what we _really_ think of him."

The wizened figure now spun around and proceeded to rage at Tennin. "You insolent little punk!" What do you think you're doing back here!? YOU SCARED ALL MY FISH AWAY!"

Tennin backed away lightly, as Dai Kaio-Shin's spittle was flying dangerously close. He raised a finger and made a point. "Actually, that was Goku."

Goku smiled nervously. "Yeah, I guess it was!"

Dai waved his small arms ineffectively. "It doesn't matter it was still your fault you rude little half-blood why if you had been born in the days when I was in charge I'd have seen that you were brought up properly instead of raised by those Nubian barbarians tomato relish!"

Although it has been the subject of hard debate and much controversy, no one has ever explained, before or since, why the ancient ruler of the universe chose to add 'tomato relish' to the end of his rant. He had screamed till his breath ran out, and was leaning over, catching his breath.

"Yeah," said Goku with open and obvious disinterest, walking over and talking to Dai Kaio-Shin. "We need to use your planet to train, cause there's this really strong guy coming here to destroy our entire reality!"

Dai Kaio calmed himself, clasping his hands behind his back. He arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I know of no such person!"

"That would be because he's from another reality," Tennin said very responsibly. "His name is Mushube. The earth was attacked by his thralls yesterday."

"So is that where they came from. . ." Dai Kaio-Shin muttered. He coughed and straightened. "Fine!"

Goku and Tennin prepared to fly off. "But. . ." he noted before they could. "Be careful. This planet is strong, but not indestructible."

The two brothers exchanged excited glances. "Okay master," said Tennin. "We'll keep that in mind when we're going at it!"

"See that you do." A frown covered the wizened frame of Dai Kaio-Shin. "And go somewhere where you will not disturb my fishing!"

Almost before he had finished, Goku and Tennin were gone. The small, old Kai looked after them. "Arrogant young folk. . ." he muttered as he turned and went back to fishing.


	3. The Training Begins

Chapter 3 

The Training Begins

In Original Japanese:

Son Gohan an Enemy!?!? Super-Warriors Collide!!

(See Chapter 1 for a lengthy explanation of the original Japanese titles.)

And here 

Is the Disclaimer

I am not a Japanese man. I am not a Japanese man named Akira Toriyama. Akira Toriyama created Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z in the mid-1980's, which is why I cannot possibly be, and I cannot emphasise this too strongly, him. After DBZ, he was often asked things about Dragon Ball GT, but we'd all rather forget that happened anyway. In the eighties, I was far too busy being born to worry about being Akira Toriyama. I am, therefore, not him. Although my story is set in his universe and among his characters, I am definitely not him, and consequently do not own his work or characters. There are several characters that are mine in this story, Goku's half-brother Tennin, his father, a kaio, and his mother Mirabi are the main ones, but there is also Genshu, Torren, Mushube, and a few others yet to appear.

And that

Was the Disclaimer.

"I win," said 18 in her smooth, sexy voice, laying down her cards. Kuririn stared at her moodily, his leg kicked over the couch in front of the card table. Yamucha sat in a chair beside them, staring at 18 with equal, albeit relaxed, displeasure.

"You know, you should really talk about other things," said Kuririn, "it's annoying when you just say 'I win' all the time."

"Only to you, dear," she said puckishly.

Yamucha sniggered in a way that he fancied was quiet but was more along the lines of rude and loud. Kuririn now turned his moody look on Yamucha. His eyes suddenly widened. "Hey, Yamucha, do you feel Goku and Tennin anymore?"

"Nope," Yamucha said, laying his fairly bad hand down.

"They're probably off training somewhere. That's all those Saiya-jins ever do," 18 said.

Kuririn stared at Yamucha. "Aren't you worried?" He asked as he laid his hand down and 18 won again.

Yamucha sighed and stared at Kuririn. "Oh, come on, Kuririn. You know we haven't done anything since Cell was here."

Kuririn frowned. "I fought Buu," he announced moodily.

Yamucha smiled. "I don't really think that the level to which Buu kicked your ass can be described as a fight." He announced this all while they drew new hands. "Face it, man. We're strategically obsolete." He then leaned back, smiled, and said: "At least we're funny, though," before laying out a winning hand.

18 and Kuririn stared at him moodily.

On Kami-Sama's Lookout, the two girls slept restlessly, their dreams full of the pain and anger from which both had been born, beads of sweat running down their arms and faces.

Dende stood at the door to the darkened room and watched the girls sleeping fitfully. He had done all he could for them medically, but now it was up to them to expel the evil from within them. When Dende had contacted Tennin telepathically, he had assured Dende they would do so. In accordance with his instructions, Dende had just let them sleep. Although he was sure after knowing him for even this brief a time that he wouldn't care, the Kaio blood that ran through the half-Saiya-jin's veins made him Dende's technical superior. The girls, who Dende was worried about, only seemed to be getting worse, and the one with long hair was letting out short gasps in her sleep. He shook his head and walked off reluctantly.

Something was happening to them.

The girl with long hair, lying on the right, began to choke faintly in her sleep. Her mouth opened and her breath was cut short, as she began breathing through her nose.

Her eyes shot wide open, no longer yellow and black but pure, unbroken blue, with a pupil slightly bluer than the iris. She began gasping painfully, her cheeks puffing out. Her voice was muffled as she gasped, something caught in her throat. Her thin, slender hands locked into a death-grip with the edges of the bed she lay on as she choked.

Suddenly, a worm made of black liquid lurched its way out of her mouth, slowly, pushing out bit by bit. She sank back into unconsciousness as it rolled down her cheek, leaving a trail of liquid, and crawled it's way off of her bed.

Seconds later, a similar creature came from the mouth of the other girl, and both crept off into the darkness of the room.

Both girls rested in total peace and tranquillity.

Tennin touched down on the grass soundlessly in an expanse of open land on Dai Kaio-Shin's planet, bordered by a mountain range far to the north, and a forest to the south. All around were jutting towers of rock, covered by grass on their top, some of them home to a small tree or two, a strange example of tree growth that Tennin found bewildering. Son Goku touched down about twenty feet away from him, and stood, smiling.

"You ready for a little training, brother?" He said, performing his usual stretches.

Tennin was loosening up as well. "Whenever you are."

"Alright!" Goku said, flipping back onto his feet. "So, should we start as Super Saiya-jins?"

Tennin smiled. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Why not see how we do without transforming first?" He offered.

"Sure," Goku responded again, dropping his stance. "Whatever gets you going!"

Tennin dropped into a stance as well, sizing up the defences of the legendary Goku, the man that every warrior in the universe trained to match. _He seems a bit slower than me. . . _mused Tennin, remembering how Goku had lagged behind him a little.

Tennin smiled, his usual reaction after he had finished being brilliant, which he did quite a lot.

Goku saw him smile, plant his right foot firmly on the ground, spin around and disappear in a black and gold -coloured blur. Immediately there was a deep, terrible, earth-shaking rumble that put Goku slightly off-balance. Goku tried to sense his brother, but found he couldn't. A look of confusion was all he had the chance for before it happened.

Tennin flew at ridiculous speeds that challenged every social convention he had ever heard of or been subjected to.

He pictured Mirabi (she had always insisted he call her by her name) telling him, in her worried, motherly way, that he shouldn't fly so much or so dangerously. The ground was not only a blur, but a discoloured and almost totally featureless blur, and Tennin knew that he had been flying for far, far less than a second. He flew into the middle of a thick forest, weaving in and out of branches with skill and grace that did nothing to slow him down and that really made him quite smug about himself.

He was pleased with himself as he flew unscathed from the forest, and so failed to notice the mountain range, hundreds of thousands of miles away from the forest that he had just barely touched.

Tennin ripped through and into them, tearing a terrible deep gash through the middle of the entire northern mountain range and causing a series of violent earthquakes to rock Dai-Kaio Shin's planet. In the small instant that it took him to pass through, he reminded himself of how dangerous any speed remotely approaching the same vicinity as that at which he was flying could be. He saw a figure in orange with a large, spiky black thing on top of it looming on the horizon.

In several trillionths of a second, Tennin had circled the entire planet, and Goku was only now beginning to catch on. Just as the devastating punch that carried an incredible speed was about to connect, Goku spun around and ducked it clumsily, just in time.

Tennin spun on a dime in the air, kicking Goku in his left side, sending him sprawling into the air. Goku regained his balance and turned several hundred flips in mid-air before landing on his feet some way away and staggering back slightly.

Before he had a chance to regain his balance on the ground, Tennin had slammed his right knee into Goku's stomach. Goku blocked Tennin's right punch, meant for his face, with his right hand and a nervous yell, then shot his left hand forward, palm out, and knocked his brother back with a small ki burst. Tennin hit the ground with his right hand and flipped over in the air, landing on his feet, nimbly.

Goku stood, breathing hard, and smiled at his brother. "You're good, little bro!"

Tennin smiled and stood to his full, daunting height. "Thanks, Goku. You're not bad either. Most people never counter during the 'Yando'."

"What's that?" Goku asked.

"It's a part of Yubo, the Nubian Arena Style. It means 'Assault'. Nobody ever even tries to counter until the second bit, the 'Undo' or 'finisher'."

"So, this Yubo basically puts the opponent off-guard and tires them out with a barrage of powerful attacks, then finishes them?"

"Yup," Tennin said, pulling out a rock that was tangled in his long, white hair. "Ow," he muttered anticlimactically as some hair came with it.

"How did that happen?" Goku said.

"Uh. . . I kinda flew through. . . a few. . . mountains." Tennin said sheepishly.

"You should watch where you're going," Goku said; very obviously and with a total lack of sheep.

Vegeta phased in, smashing the fist of his right arm into the face of the lagging Mikkon once again, bringing a fresh flow of blood from his unfortunate nose.

Torren rocketed into the pockmarked ground, making another crater. Using his abnormal skill to regain his balance and composure, he flipped back out almost immediately, landing in a kneel, as Vegeta's legs dug into the spot where he had been, kicking the ground up in plates that snapped into smaller plates under their own weight.

Vegeta pulled his legs from the hole and rose into the air, smiling through the sheen of dust surrounding him. He folded his arms, cocked his head on one side, and smiled. Torren stared at him, breathless, and made a mistake.

He stood, unguarded, expecting a time-out, which was what Vegeta had wanted. He laughed slightly and phased out. Torren, instead of receiving a brief respite, received thousands of blows, smashing into bits of his body that he had lost track of years ago.

Vegeta kicked Torren into the air with his right leg, shot up as a blur into his flight path, then elbowed him down onto the ground.

Vegeta landed beside Torren as he rose painfully. Torren stood and pressed his teeth together in pain. "Ow," he said, looking down at the marginally shorter Vegeta.

"You're getting boring, boy," Vegeta said. "Don't you have any tricks up your sleeve?" His eyes moved to the hilt protruding from behind the Mikkon's back. "What about that sword? Must be good for something besides straightening your spine."

Torren smiled again. "Are you sure you want me to use the power of the Guardian Sword?"

Vegeta snorted. He had thought he might scoff a bit, but then realised he didn't know what the hell it meant to scoff, so he snorted instead. "You had better do something. I'm getting tired of winning so easily." He smiled.

"Alright then," Torren agreed. "But I warned you." His hand shot to the hilt of his sword as a circle of bright blue energy exploded around him.

Torren rose into the air slightly, grinning through the blue burst as Vegeta stood back and watched. The Saiya-jin arched his eyebrow as he felt Torren's ki increasing. There was a flash, a yell from Torren, and his level began to do what is normally called skyrocketing. It was increasing exponentially, so fast that Vegeta could barely keep up. The energy blast did very little to the ground around Torren, as it's attractive blue luminescence shone on everything. Torren slowly sank back to the ground.

The blue ball dissipated in a flash, almost quicker than it had appeared, leaving Torren standing, eyes flashing thousands of different colours simultaneously. "Behold the Shi Shin Ken Dao," Torren proclaimed, his voice echoing with many tones that were not his own. "The Power of the Ancestors."

"That's very impressive," said Vegeta in a voice that was too loud and far too dramatic, "but have you ever seen a Super Saiya-jin 2?"

Torren cocked his head as his eyes returned to normal, his voice steadying. The air of power and grandeur, however, remained. "What is a Super Saiya-jin 2?"

Vegeta chuckled, a smile spreading across his face. "Hmph. Don't worry. I won't need to go Super Saiya-jin 2 to best you, boy."

Vegeta laughed and extended his palm, launching a ball of yellow energy. His eyes shifted as he felt Torren's power behind him. He was struck in the small of the back by something that felt similar in force, thrust, weight, and shape, to the nose of a large ocean liner, and flew forward with powerful momentum, closely behind his own ball of energy. He laboriously thrust his arms forward, launching another ball, stopping himself with the thrust, planting his right foot on the ground long enough to rocket back towards Torren. The Mikkon ducked in, out, and around the hailstorm of blows that came from the returning Super Saiya-jin, pummelling Vegeta with thousands of blows and finally kicking him away along the ground. At the same time, both of Vegeta's ki blasts exploded brilliantly in the far distance. Vegeta stopped several thousand feet away and struggled up.

His bright green eyes looked up at Torren irritably. He was smiling. "Well, I think it's safe to say I won that round," he said, humorously.

Vegeta exploded angrily in yellow energy, flying up into the air and looking down at Torren. He made a head gesture which translated, in the language of those with asses that are bad, as 'come up'.

Erupting with blue ki, Torren followed Vegeta's lead, floating some way away from the Saiya-jin Prince. Vegeta smiled, a trickle of blood coming from the corner of his mouth. "I think it's time you saw a Super Saiya-jin 2," he said, jubilantly.

Genshu walked outside the borders of Satan City, taking in the lovely mountain range. It would be a perfect place to meditate, she decided. She had felt rather put off since those men had interrupted her vigorous bout of self-deprecation over Mushube.

Genshu was almost immediately in love with these mountains. She needed as much time as she could get to prepare for Mushube, knowing that she would probably not survive this encounter.

Standing at the edge of a tree-growth, she looked out over the picturesque mountains, the smell of fresh pine filling her nose. This planet stirred memories of Mikkona in her, of the beauty and ancient loveliness of her lost home world.

Although it was in Genshu's nature to care about these people and their world, she felt she lacked the kind of conviction and determination she had possessed on Mikkon. On Mikkon, concern for her friends and family, for Torren, for all the people who were close to her, had fuelled her compassion for others. But there was nothing yet on this world that she truly loved. . . although, she thought, smiling, there was the tall man Tennin who made her smile and lose her power of speech, which was usually so eloquent. Her heart, which had been closed and hard since her failure, had opened like the gates of morning at sunrise when she first saw him. Genshu had been alive for a very long time, but had been bewildered by her feelings.

She had now realised what they were, these feelings she had never had before, and knew how dangerous they could be to her concentration. She had instantly fallen into an unforgiving, indiscriminate, and utterly unremitting love with him, and he and her attraction to him were chief among her concerns.

Her teachers, her mother and grandmothers, had always taught her of the peril of the 'ludas', love-attraction, to the journey of the Itton. And now Genshu had fallen into it, and could not see a way out. But, she reflected, did she really want a way out?

"Haaaa!" Goku yelled, his voice echoing across Dai Kaio-Shin's planet as he went Super Saiya-jin, feeling a similar change in energy as his brother, whom he could not see for the dust, did the same.

Goku was right, as surely enough, a Super Saiya-jin Tennin came speeding through the thick, smoky cloud straight at him, his right fist drawn back.

Goku ducked under the super-fast blow, as Tennin phased through Goku's flipping right kick, aimed at his face, in almost the same instant. Goku barred his teeth in consternation as he completed the flip, and in the minute instant of time before the next attack, he thought of how any other warrior would have been off-guard when that blow came. Tennin's Kaio-Ken ability was getting the best of Goku.

Jumping over the sweeping left kick that lashed out from behind in the nick of time, Goku spun in the air, furiously exchanging thousands of blows for an instant with his brother, neither making any headway. Goku was waiting for it, and his chance came. Tennin suddenly did that imperceptible thing and would have hit Goku in the face, had Goku not anticipated and poured an inordinate amount of his energy into a force blast that knocked Tennin away. He thrust both hands forward and directed the blast straight into the middle of Tennin's torso.

The tall Super Saiya-jin flew through the air at hyper speed, dubiously conscious, before turning somersaults as he grabbed his consciousness again, and landing hard on the ground, stripping the grass up and sliding fiercely.

Tennin made a worried noise as he barely blocked Goku's punch. Goku took the opportunity to catch his surprised brother off guard and balance, whipping a punch across his face, and driving his left knee into Tennin's stomach. He then kicked him further off into the distance.

Quicker than Goku could react, Tennin's newly unconscious form exploded with brilliant yellow and circled round, slamming his knee into Goku's stomach as he elbowed him into the ground. Goku rose again almost immediately, winded and staring at his equally winded brother.

"Phew!" Goku let out, with a gust of air. "I'd say we're going about equal, wouldn't you?"

"Sure," Tennin responded cockily. "Right _now_ we are. I don't know about you, but I've got a lot more to see."

"Oh yeah, of course!" Goku said, rotating his arm in its socket. "You ready for the next level?"

Tennin smiled. "Whenever you are," he then cocked his head and added: "But I think we should get some space between us before we get serious."

"I couldn't agree more," Goku responded personably. Then, his eyes narrowed and he leapt up into the air like a bullet, lighting on one of the towering bastions of land that jutted irrationally from the surface of Dai Kaio-Shin's Planet, his boot making a muffled tap in the grass.

Tennin smirked and shot up into the air, until his eyes were level with his brothers. Goku watched as the tall man balled his fists and gave a great yell as he was engulfed in power. Goku almost immediately did the same.

For miles around, plants were ripped from the ground by the hot wind their energies created, bits of grass and flowers swirling all around as gust after gust lashed across the green grass of the poor, poor, idyllic world.

When the yelling ceased, the two brothers faced off as Super Saiya-jin 3, Goku's bastion of rock shattered at the top, Tennin still floating where he had been.

The bright green eyes met in the unfathomable instance before they vanished.

Billions of light-years away, less vivid but no less interesting green eyes took in the streams, pine trees, and animals doing what animals do, that is trying to eat and have sex, in the mountains outside Satan City. Genshu was searching for a suitable place to meditate, her mind already as clear as the streams that surrounded her, thoughts tumbling through it in much the same way as the fish tumbled through their streams. Clarity did not, she reminded herself, always mean the same thing as emptiness.

Sitting down on a nice, open spot of grass, the insanely beautiful woman began to enter a meditative state. Bits of half-suppressed memory nagged at her, the sad day of her ultimate failure flowing through her mind with alarming speed.

She sighed in a way that would have brought men running had any been there.

. . . she had been confident and beautiful as she stood on the great tower, with her best friend and Guardian Torren at her side, as the great black rift had finally opened. Her staff shone with a bright green flame, the ancient magic coursing through her body.

And then, against all odds and at the worst possible moment, Torren caught her attention. She looked at him, thinly maintaining her concentration. "What is it, Torren?" She had asked him quickly.

He looked at her worriedly. "I am sorry Genshu, but I have some something I must tell you. . ."

And then Mushube had asserted his advantage.

A single bolt of black light lashed deep into the surface of Mikkona, ripping the tower apart in a great black explosion, her precious home-world ripping to shreds as she realised she had failed.

After that all Genshu could do was use her magic to take she and Torren to the Void Space between dimensions. And there they had spent some time, watching and waiting in utter silence as Mushube destroyed their entire universe. Genshu had been able to find where he would go next, and immediately took them there to warn the inhabitants, one of whom had been brought into the Void Space itself. . .

It occurred to her that Torren had never told her what it was he had to say.

Genshu stirred once more from her reverie, as something almost entirely incomprehensible to her delicate, spiritual sensibilities came over the ridge before her.

As Vegeta ascended to SSJ2, things ran away from him.

The air rushed away from him at ridiculous speeds, as did the grass that was torn from the pockmarked plain, and any small, ineffectual creatures within the distance were blown away savagely.

The only thing that did not move was Torren. The Mikkon fighter stood and stared at the all-powerful Saiya-jin as though he weren't the most totally terrifying thing he had ever seen, which pissed Vegeta off a bit.

Vegeta was not, in fact, the worst thing Torren had ever seen.

Torren stood coolly for a moment, his eyes flaring a thousand colours all at once. "Is that it?" He said then, calmly.

Vegeta smiled broadly and tackled Torren with his shoulder, sending the other off-balance. Quickly, Vegeta took advantage, lunging forward and hitting his opponent hard in the face, dislocating the jaw and, he imagined, ending the fight for at least a while.

Torren fell to the ground, swiftly avoiding Vegeta's intended finisher, landing on his hands and flipping up as he and Vegeta hit one another at about ten times the kind of speeds your mother warned you about.

They fell off of one another moments later, Vegeta's right hand around Torren's throat, his knee in Torren's stomach, and Torren's left leg buried painfully in the right side of Vegeta's ribcage. Both grimaced painfully, bringing blood bursting unpleasantly from their wounds. Torren fell to his knees, then to his right side, Vegeta simultaneously sprawling out backwards on the ground, both breathing in long, hard-bought breaths.

Through the laboured breathing and the constantly waxing and waning blood, Torren managed one word: "Breather?"

Vegeta took a few breaths, grimaced, bled, and then replied, over-dramatically as was his style: "Yes."

Both fighters lay on the grassy plain, bleeding, grimacing, and taking one hell of a breather.

Gohan screamed piercingly as he awoke into the red, pain-streaked world.

This was not far off from what he had been doing, except that before his screaming had been limited to an unpleasant, closed-off area of his mind.

Chi-Chi, who was taking a rare midday nap on a blanket by her son's bed, (rare as she was usually being overwrought about something right about now) awoke with a start from a dream about pasta and girls with large breasts trying to steal her sons. "I know what kind of girl she is!" Chi-Chi yelled blearily as she awoke to see Gohan writhing, his eyes wide and pure white, his screaming subsiding slowly.

At the moment that Chi-Chi began doting, Videl burst into the room wearing nothing but a towel.

The pupils were starting to return to Gohan's eyes, as both women, who according to the laws of in-laws, which apply to all people in all places in all worlds, should have hated one another with a quiet, unrelenting fierceness, quietly held hands across Gohan's bed, watching as his pain subsided.

The black pupils returned to his eyes, his body still drenched in sweat. He blinked rapidly and his eyes came into focus. He looked from one lovely raven-haired woman to the next. Both had tears in their eyes, tears shed for Gohan's pain that had been all too obvious.

He looked at them curiously, with blind incomprehension on his face. "Uh. . . mom. . . Videl. . . was I dead or something?"

"No," Videl was the only one capable of speech through her tears. "No, but you were in pain."

Gohan wiped some sweat from his head. "Yeah, I remember that, but. . . what's going on? I'm totally confused."

Chi-Chi's eyes were brimming with tears, but she struggled to explain at least a bit. She spoke in fast, disconnected phrases, separated by small bouts of sobbing. "You were gone and, someone brought you back and your father, has a brother and someone's supposed to come, and destroy the earth and, I'm so glad you're okay!" She continued speaking, but her words were garbled by the fact that she wept uncontrollably and buried her head in the bed sheets fiercely.

"A. . . brother?" He looked at Videl. "Is mom. . . okay?"

She smiled. "Yeah, sweetie. Your dad really has a brother."

"Hm," Gohan said, and sat up in bed. "Well. . . what's he like?"

"Oh, he's so great! He's half kai, and he's really sweet!"

Gohan smiled at her as Chi-Chi continued soaking the sheets. "You guys should get together," he said mischievously. "Sounds like he's a lot more sensitive than me."

Videl smiled back with equal mischief. "Well, I would, but. . . well, actually, I think he's got a lot of chemistry with Genshu. And they both have that higher-plane-of-existence vibe."

Gohan sat and searched his memory for a moment, then asked: "Who the hell is Genshu?"

"Oh yeah," Videl said. "She's an alien from another dimension!"

"What!?" Gohan said. "How long have I been asleep?"

"About a day, give or take," she told him.

Gohan looked out the window grimly. "Things haven't happened this fast since Buu was around. I've got a bad feeling." He held his head. "I guess being mischievous gives me a headache." Raising his arm had given Gohan a sample of his currently unpleasant scent. He looked at Videl. "I stink." He leaned in close to his wife, smiling. Want to take a shower?" He asked.

Chi-Chi looked up, her head smoking from the sudden evaporation of her tears, which produced a sizzling noise that, all things considered, was very relevant. "Gohan!" She stood and folded her arms. "I know your father isn't bothered by that sort of talk, but I am a lady! Keep those things to yourselves!"

"Come on, mom! I'm married!" Goku said nervously. He quickly thought about it and smiled, remembering some select conversations with Goku. "And what do you mean, 'a lady'? You and dad have a more active sex life than we do!"

Chi-Chi flushed an artistically impossible shade of red, but didn't exactly look angry. She just looked embarrassed. "How would you know that? Has Goku been. . . talking?"

"I brought it up, you know?" Gohan told her.

Chi-Chi smiled a bit. "I'm going to have to punish him when he gets back."

"I've heard you punish him three or four times a week. . ." Gohan muttered.

"Well, I can see you're feeling better!" Chi-Chi said in an unnecessarily loud voice, and left the room, her shoulders raised above her chin.

Gohan chuckled. "That was kind of mean," Videl said.

Gohan looked at her. "But funny."

"Yeah," she responded, cocking her head on its side. "Come on," she said, leading Gohan out of bed. "I'm in the middle of a shower."

They walked out of the room together.

"Kaa – meeee – haaa – meee - HAA!" Son Goku yelled from somewhere near the stratosphere of Dai Kaio-Shin's world. He was beaten and bleeding, his clothes torn and face scratched by the millions of tiny shards of rock that seemed to be constantly in the air at this point, all from the fight at SSJ3 with his brother.

He launched the energy wave, a large chunk of his remaining power, down at the spot where he was fairly sure his brother was. He hoped it would exhaust Tennin's last reserves of energy.

What he did not hope or expect was, as usual, precisely what happened.

A mighty yell echoed from below, the sound coming to Goku's ears almost too late, as he saw the huge cloud of dust below pushed aside for miles around:

"Kaaaaaa – meeeee – haaaa – meeeee – HAAAAAAAA!"

Just as Tennin's almighty Kamehameha wave drove Goku's back almost the entire way. Goku, his hands burning under his brother's ridiculously powerful energy, pushed back, pouring his power into the wave, widening the warring energies exploding in the middle of the blasts. Goku smiled as he saw the widening crater below, surely where his brother must be standing, driven into the ground by the vast Kamehameha Gaeshi.

"Man," Goku said to himself and anyone else who might have been listening. "I've not had to try this hard in quite a while!"

He screamed, pushing even harder as his brother pushed back again.

Tennin, on the surface, stood tall in his crater, his arms locked into the open-handed Kamehameha stance. His yellow Super Saiya-jin hair whipped out behind him, as did the gold sash around his waist. He too was ripped and torn, his gi burnt almost entirely off, hanging on by a strip of cloth on the left shoulder, his golden sash whipping in the super-hot wind. He dumped loads of energy into the blast in one last effort.

Goku, above, felt the strength of the blast and immediately cut off his wave, ready to intercept the incoming beam. He crossed his arms over his face and set himself for the impact.

The explosion was visible as a lovely blue and green meteor from an entire solar system away. A primitive life form, crawling from the new world's primordial soup, saw it and decided it was God, and immediately put to death all of it's peers who disagreed.

Goku floated in the sky in the burnt, windy aftermath, his arms burning painfully. He took his arms down and gasped nervously at the huge, smoking grey crater that spread out below. Quickly using Shunkanidou, he appeared in front of his brother, who was now standing, albeit painfully and with lots of blood.

Tennin smiled widely at his brother, a strange sight for a SSJ3. "That was fun!" He said excitedly.

"Yeah," Goku agreed, "but just look at this place," he gestured to the great smoking crater that stretched for miles. "Dai Kaio isn't gonna be happy."

"Yeah. Maybe we should wrap it up."

"Good idea," Goku agreed. "But first we have to learn each others Special Techniques." Goku's hair returned to its normal state.

Tennin made a light noise as his did the same. "Yeah. I have a couple up my sleeve. . ."

"Hey, you're the guest. Let's see yours first!" Goku told his brother.

"Well, alright then. . ." Tennin began.

Gohan stood outside his parent's house, tying the belt of his orange and blue Gi, the standard outfit of the Z-Senshi.

His mother stood behind him, holding a box that Gohan simply would not take. "Won't you take your lunch, Gohan? Please?"

He looked back at her. "Mom. . . sorry, I don't have time for lunch. Now that I know a little bit about what's going on, I've got to go see Piccolo, since I can't sense dad. I'm sorry. But this is urgent, you understand, don't you?"

Chi-Chi nodded mutely. "I just wish things didn't always have to end up this way, Gohan."

Gohan looked at the sun, which was slowly moving west. "Believe me, mom, so do I," he said intensely. He gave Chi-Chi a heartfelt hug before he flew off.

Gohan knifed through the air, heading straight towards his old mentor.

Something jumped into Gohan's shadow, far below on the ground. The black of the shadow deepened as it sank in.

Piccolo sat in the air and stared at a tree.

He considered the tree, all of it's parts, the earth that was gathered around it's base, the seed it must have long ago been, it's ancient and vast arboreal predecessors, and how it had simply not been there that morning.

It was a small tree, barely taller than Piccolo. It's aura was not evil, but wasn't good either. Piccolo, with all the infinite wisdom of Kami-Sama, was unable to fathom just what it might be about.

A wind blew that made his cape sweep out and the tree waggle slightly. He almost felt that this was a sign of disrespect in his direction, but forgot about it quickly.

He considered his problem and how it might be solved. He suddenly opted for the quickest and most obvious route. "What are you!?" He asked dramatically.

The small red-skinned tree shook in the slight wind.

Piccolo frowned. He did something he rarely did, and stroked his chin. "Hmmmm. . ." he breathed.

The tree, as if in response, suddenly broke, fell over, and died simultaneously. It turned a deep shade of decayed black and sank into the ground. Sweat beaded on Piccolo's forehead.

The arboreal antics were forgotten as he sensed Gohan in the distance. It occurred to him that he should have been training. He lighted on the ground and turned to the direction Gohan would arrive from.

Moments after, the yellow ki flared in the distance and Gohan landed in front of Piccolo. Piccolo gave a brief smile. "How's it going, Gohan?"

Gohan laughed awkwardly. "Well. . . I feel a little behind the times."

"You had everyone worried with that episode of yours," he said. "Let's not do that again."

"Yeah," Gohan said, nodding. "It's not something I would recommend. So, what do you think about my dad's brother and the aliens and all that?"

Piccolo stared at Gohan. "You know what I think." He turned and looked absent-mindedly at the spot where the tree had grown. "I think that if there's any possibility they were telling the truth about this guy, that we can't prepare enough."

"And what if they weren't?" Gohan asked.

Piccolo turned back to him. "Then we'll have a whole new set of things to worry about," he said.

Gohan nodded, then smiled. "You know, you were right."

"About what?"

"I did know what you thought."

Piccolo smiled. "Where are Trunks and Goten? They should be here, too."

Gohan considered. "They're probably at school. Man, they're almost out of school! Seems like a few days ago that Goten barely came up to my waist."

"You should see your father's brother," Piccolo said. "I think most people only come up to his waist." He cleared his throat in a business-like fashion. "Go and get Trunks and Goten out of school. Right now, training is more important."

"He's taller than you?" Gohan asked. "You're pretty tall."

"That doesn't matter! Go get Trunks and Goten out of school," he said, a bit angry that someone taller than him had arrived.

Gohan frowned openly.

"What?" Piccolo said.

Gohan crossed his arms and sighed. "I'm glad you feel like you can just delegate things like that. You don't have to deal with my mom."

"I'm sorry I can't fight that battle for you, too," Piccolo said, smirking sarcastically.

"Alright then," Gohan relented. "I'll be back. But I'm telling mom this was your idea."

"Tell Chi-Chi whatever you want," Piccolo said calmly. "Just hurry."

Gohan flew off towards Orange Star High School.

A large man with unnecessarily poofy black hair came over the ridge, dressed in safari gear. His appearance was utterly bewildering to Genshu, because:

It did not fit into her cultural reality, and

Even if it had, the man was surrounded by the equivalent of an expensive restaurant's worth of food and people pointing things at him, and could not, in any conceivable reality, have been on anything like a safari.

Genshu quickly and quietly hid herself in the foliage, to observe this strange and bewildering spectacle, obviously some ritual of this culture that she did not understand.

A small, spectacled man with a handlebar moustache ran up to him.

"Oh, Mr. Satan, that was wonderful! But could you do it once more? A bit more dramatic, you know?"

Mr. Satan smiled widely. "Sure! Drama's my speciality!" And retreated back over the ridge. A man dressed in grey came and smacked the black thingy together. "'Mr. Satan, Rugged Outdoorsman, Ruggedly Explores the Rugged Outdoors' scene 6b, take 573, action!"

The man retreated over the ridge, and then busily rushed back up it once again.

His hands on his hips, he dramatically surveyed the scene before him. "Ha ha!" He laughed in an even more over-dramatised way. "What a beautiful day!"

"And. . . cut!" came the word from the cameraman. The small, spectacled man ran up again.

"Oh, Mr. Satan, that was utterly super! I couldn't have done it better myself!"

He beamed. "No one would expect you to, friend!"

He looked into the sun. "I think we'll go back to the hotel for today, people."

Genshu stared wide-eyed from her place in the foliage, not certain what to think now. She knew they would be leaving soon, and felt she had to ask just what the hell was going on. She stepped out silently and walked up to Mr. Satan.

Normally, someone would have questioned her, but this was not normal.

As soon as she had stepped out, most of the men were immediately immobilised due to certain unmentionable difficulties.

She walked out to him gracefully, her bare feet making no noise at all on the soft grass.

Mr. Satan stared at her unknowingly as she approached him. "Uh. . . do you want my autograph?" He asked.

"Um. . . no," she said, looking about in intellectual fascination at all the equipment surrounding her. "No, actually, I was just wondering what you were doing."

"I'm makin' a movie about what a rugged outdoorsman I am!" He said loudly, as though it should excite her.

She stared at him blankly this time. "What's a 'movie'?"

"Uh. . . a film?" He tried.

"Oh yes!" Genshu said triumphantly. "I know what that is."

"You want to be in my movie?" Mr. Satan asked the amused and bewildered Genshu. He smiled and took her in. "You sure are a pretty one, but you're not dressed right for a Satan Productions flick! How about I just. . ."

"Get out of here!" The bespectacled man shouted at Genshu. "Mr. Satan will not be signing any bits of your anatomy! Mr. Satan is a family man!"

Genshu looked down at the huffy little man. "Oh, I'm. . . sorry. . ." she said, with great confusion. "I'll leave then. . ."

She turned and left, slowly, as Mr. Satan argued with the man.

On Dai Kaio-Shin's Planet, Tennin was worrying about his clothes.

His outfit had been clean and neat when he arrived on the planet. Now, his outer black gi was ripped off almost entirely, hanging on by the left shoulder. His grey shirt was rather ragged at the edges. The gold sash at his waist was in tatters. Tennin's black pants were the worst off, with holes in both knees, the left leg exposed from calf to knee.

Goku's clothes were ripped up as well, but he obviously wasn't worried about it.

Tennin looked down at himself. "Wow. I've destroyed armies in these clothes and they've looked better than this."

"Sorry, Tennin," Goku said, noncommittally. "When we get back, I'll have Chi-Chi repair them." Goku got in his brothers face. "Now come on! You said you were gonna show me your special techniques!" He danced around worriedly. "Hurry up!"

Tennin laughed. "Okay, okay. Well, of course there's the Kamehameha. . ." He spoke slowly on purpose.

"I know that one!" Goku said. "Show me something new!"

"Well, my most powerful technique is called the Tenjin Baku. It's a little like your Genki Dama, except it not only draws on the energy of a planet, but also upon the faith that people put in the person using it."

"Cool!" Goku said. "So show it to me."

Tennin smiled. "Alright."

Tennin set his feet firmly on the ground and concentrated. He brought his arms up to his chest level, and held his hands, palms together as if in prayer. With a flash, blue ki began to burn around his body, whipping his long white hair about, and ripping loose the left shoulder of his failing gi. There was another, brighter flash, and blue ki began to glow from between his palms. Tennin now held a small, glowing blue ball between his palms, which Goku felt burning with fierce energy. Tennin barred his teeth as the power surged through him, and then the small ball erupted with the energy of a blinding blue star, filling Dai Kaio-Shin's planet with a pure white light.

Everyone that could see it saw the birth of a universe.

They saw hopes and dreams for the future, the exploration and adaptation of indigenous species, the beginnings of life and the development of intellect. It was a bright, warm light that shone forth on all beings within its sight, and filled them with happiness, hope, and well being.

Son Goku, who had always been honest with himself, could not see his hands or any part of his body or, in fact, anything. He found it a deeply spiritual experience, and bathed in the light while it lasted.

As quickly as it had appeared, the blinding, beautiful, lovely light was gone, and everything whose image it had obscured rushed back into the eyes of those who had seen it, like a series of freight trains carrying something particularly disgusting, because nothing could be as beautiful as the light had been. Nobody, least of all Goku, who stood, dumbfounded, knew why it had been so beautiful.

Quickly realising that he had to forget the light, Goku looked at Tennin. He stood upright, looking relaxed and unfocused. Between his palms he held a perfect ball of beautiful, fascinating light, full of enormous energy. The orb pulsed slightly, and within it could be seen the images of stars and swirling energies, as though a new universe had, indeed, begun within it. It was not very large, about 36 inches around, but it was incredibly dense. Tennin's white hair was still standing straight above his head in the hot wind enveloping his body, as his orange eyes finally looked to his brother.

He smiled. "Well, what do you think?"

Goku was speechless. "Tennin, that was amazing! Where did you learn a technique like that?"

Tennin smiled, and the fascinating orb of energy vanished, Tennin's hair falling back into place. Goku suddenly felt stronger. "Well," Tennin said. "It was initially a technique that my father spent his whole life creating. However, he could never use it. I was the only one who could." He smiled cleverly at Goku. "But I suspect you'll become the second."

"I sure hope so," Goku said happily. "Well," he sat cross-legged on the grass. "Teach me, I'm the student!"

Tennin smiled happily once more.

Trunks, Goten, and Gohan landed several feet away from Piccolo's waterfall. Piccolo sat in the air in plain sight, his back to them. "What took you so long!?" He said, which was apparently intended as an unorthodox form of greeting.

Gohan grinned nervously. "Sorry, Piccolo, but Trunks and Goten had to go home and get dressed in some training clothes."

Piccolo spun around in the air, still sitting. "For two and a half hours!?" Following this, he growled deeply in his throat. "Just how much time do you think we have?"

"Um. . ." said Trunks, who was only just age at the age where he was self realised and felt confident around women. He was far from the age where he felt confident around Piccolo. "Didn't that Genshu girl say three to four years?"

Piccolo bit his lip. He sighed to himself. He wasn't really angry with anyone, he was just frustrated by all the flora that kept on popping up and dying. While Gohan had been gone, an impressive vine cover had grown on a tree and died about thirty seconds later, and two more trees had sprouted and died. The one thing they had all shared in common was a strange crimson colour. But as neither Piccolo, Kami-Sama, or Nail could make anything of it, hethey decided to give up.

"Forget it," he said, dropping to the ground and approaching them. "We better start training." Goten and Trunks nodded, but Gohan simply stood still with his eyes open. Piccolo stared at him momentarily. Nothing happened. "Gohan?" He tried. Gohan seemed to be trembling slightly, and perspiration was forming on his forehead. Goten and Trunks both stared. Gohan's mouth slipped open slightly as he made a strange noise. "Gohan!" Piccolo shouted. This time, Gohan started in surprise and looked up.

"Oh ah, hi. . . Piccolo." He smiled nervously.

Piccolo's instincts flared so intensely it burned, but he didn't let on. He merely arched his eyebrow. "Are you all right?"

Gohan smiled again, less nervous. "Yeah, I'm fine! Sorry, I don't know what was wrong with me there."

Piccolo smiled, keeping his cool against his flaring senses. "Well, we better go." As the test, Piccolo turned around and walked for the edge of the waterfall.

He only barely managed to phase through the incredibly fast flying kick that would have severed his spine.

He phased out and back in immediately behind Gohan, roundhouse kicking him with his right leg. Gohan flew away, hitting the ground and sliding off the edge of the waterfall. There was a splash as he hit the water far below. Piccolo was perspiring. He had felt the power of whatever it was inside Gohan just then, and knew that it was far from down.

Goten was confused. "Piccolo, why did you do that to Gohan?"

"That wasn't Gohan," Piccolo said, dropping his stance. "Something is inside him." He looked over his shoulder at both of them. "It will be coming back! Get ready!"

Knowing better than to disobey their old master, Trunks and Goten immediately dropped stance. Piccolo looked on, waiting, his senses extended, feeling for the power. _It feels like those kids did_, he thought. _If Mushube has even a fourth of that power, then I don't see how we have a chance. . ._

A huge ball of water erupted into the air, sending tidal waves in all directions. Much of the stone of Piccolo's ancient waterfall collapsed in upon itself, bringing water pouring over the edge more frenetically than before. From amidst the cacophony, Gohan rose, arms at his side, eyes staring at the three warriors. Streams of water swirled around him at high speeds, and a horrible smile lit his features.

His eyes travelled from one to the other, slowly. Two voices came from his mouth, as though he were fused. "None of you are the one we seek." He floated forward and landed on the ground about eight feet from Piccolo. Trunks stood to the Namekians left, Goten to his right, in a triangle formation. The smile widened evilly. "However. . . you will do for now."

Gohan rushed at Piccolo, faster than the Namekian imagination could function.


	4. It Ends Then it Begins

Chapter 4

The End and the Beginning

In Original Japanese:

Destroy Son Gohan!?!? Battle for Vengeance!!

(See Chapter 1 for a lengthy explanation of the original Japanese titles.)

I love badgers.

Hello there. Sorry about the last chapter. I can tell the editorial thing didn't go over well, not because I got negative feedback, but because I got _no_ feedback. I think it just really turned people off, so I won't be doing it again. I'd rather immerse people in the world of Dragon Ball, in this case, than inform them of the injustices in our (unfortunately) real world. I do indeed love badgers, and this will become very evident as you read chapter 4. I wonder are any of you impatient for Mushube to arrive? At the most it'll take two chapters before he does. So read this chapter which is, in part, my tribute to badgers, as well as a formal introduction to Genshu and some of her feelings.

Anyway, by the time this chapter is up, chapter 3 should have been edited to have my tragic spiel removed. I've also got changes to make to the physical characteristics of Trunks and Goten in former chapters, as they should be older than I seem to have made them, and I would like to additionally mention that I have become a fan of the original Japanese Dragonball Z since beginning this project, and I'm changing a lot of the names accordingly. The 'Son' family prefix will be used a lot, 'Hyperbolic Time Chamber' will become 'Room of Spirit and Time', and I'm generally removing any service I might have given, in the beginning, to those fuckers at Funimation. Any Dragonball fan who has become entranced by Masako Nozawa's odd, high-pitched portrayal of the men of the Son family will know what I'm changing.

If, by any chance, you are interested in the social, political, and human rights abuses going on in the world, and what you can do to help, email me at or, even better, point your web browser to Amnesty International, the worlds leading human rights organisation, at . I am a Dragonball nerd, but I'm an extremely liberal and socially conscious one. Therefore, this web address and my email will appear on all subsequent chapters. Please, please, don't confine your awareness of the world to your own little corner or your country's private interests.

My email address, by the way, is always open.

I am still not Akira Toriyama.

Tennin's body was enveloped in a white-hot beam. The incredible blast had no point of focus, unlike the Kamehameha, which came from the hands, or the Dodonpa wave, focused on the fingers. What Tennin was doing was releasing a blast of white-hot, low-concentration energy from every part of his body. His arms and legs were splayed out to the sides as Goku sat watching curiously.

Several minutes after he had shown him, Goku had absorbed the basics of forming and using the Tenjin Baku technique, and Tennin had to admit that, despite his eccentricities, he was quite fast on the uptake. Tennin cut off the devastating blast, and dropped to the ground, his clothes in even worse shape. Goku smiled. "So, what do you call that one?"

Tennin smiled right back. "The Furi Shun. Not an easy one."

Goku looked confused. "What do you mean? It seems simple enough."

"Maybe, but in practical terms it's very taxing, albeit productive. But, enough about me, let's see your. . ." Tennin cut off in mid-sentence, for it was at that moment that something dreadful happened on earth.

Genshu wandered in the wilderness, quietly letting it wash over her, feeling culturally enlightened by her experience with the man named Hercule.

Mostly, though, her thoughts were still on the tall man with long white hair. . . or rather, the other tall man with long white hair. . . the sweet, honest one that she had not known her entire life. . .

Genshu shook her head as she realised that this was not very meditative. But still, how could she not think of somebody who so filled her heart? Her ancestors, the other women of her family who had served as the Itton, had warned her about the love attraction, and of its danger.

Her people, who had never been very emotional, had divided all emotions into categories. Ludas, or love, was the most dangerous one, which led to all other negative emotions. Although she knew that wasn't strictly wrong, Genshu had always rejected the idea that mastering her abilities depended upon mastering her emotions. She felt no different now. She didn't want to take control of what she felt and analyse the life from it until she understood it, as she had been taught to do. What she felt like doing right now was everything she had ever been warned against.

She decided that she would allow herself to fall into the danger of the Ludas attraction, if just to see what it would bring her. The bottom line was that she and Tennin talk about it, for it was clear he returned her feelings.

As she thought this, doubt began to gnaw at her. Did he truly feel the same way? He seemed very surprised by her, and taken with her. She was used to this, though, having long ago stopped acting as though she was not beautiful. Still, she had never had any pride about it. She smiled through her doubt, remembering his eyes, how there had been something different in them, something that appreciated her more than that, that made her feel something she had never felt, something terribly irrational. In her long life, she had never seriously had a relationship with anyone.

Maybe she had thought she saw something in his eyes because they were orange?

This quite silly thought entered and left her mind quickly, as something began to whine pitifully at her feet. As she looked down, she saw a small creature, whining raspily, with a fine fur that would someday be an interesting mixture of black and white.

It was a very small, very young badger. This badger's name, although he did not know it, was Uro. This was his story:

Uro had been born, and was rather ugly. Slowly, he had become adorable, as his mother began teaching the ancient badger tradition of springing from the burrow and mauling passing things at random. One day, several months into his life, Uro's mother was showing him how to react, by mauling, to a deer who frolicked to close to the burrow.

Uro, however, being a rowdy little badger, was not paying attention, but rather was practising reacting to, by mauling, a passing grasshopper. Unfortunately, Uro's legs were shorter, his teeth less developed, and claws less sharp than his big, meaninglessly angry mother, and the grasshopper, rather annoyed by the whole thing, leaped away nimbly. This behaviour, of course, inspired the single most powerful instinct of a badger's mind: to maul. Our tiny badger friend raced through the wood as fast as his short legs could carry him, after the aloof grasshopper.

His mother, still busy demonstrating the correct way to react to close-proximity frolicking, did not notice, and in fact assumed he was watching, rapt with attention. He was, however, not far away by normal standards, but miles away by his own.

Although our little friend had lost the grasshopper, he had now come upon the outside world, to discover literally billions of things to leap upon and, following this, maul. Having, however, nothing to leap out of, he made a great departure from tradition, giving the first bit the miss and skipping right on to the mauling.

His physical shortcomings notwithstanding, he did quite a good job. A blade of grass as well as a burnt tree-stump were disfigured for life, and a butterfly, while not hurt by its ordeal, would certainly be sure to avoid badgers from then on. Following this successful bit of mauling, Uro was tired, and so took a nap among all the grass and the trees, far away from the bustling pace of West City. In the morning he would return to his mother, to receive further lessons in a badgers life's work.

But something awoke him in the middle of the night. Immediately jumping up and growling in a way that was, unfortunately for Uro, almost sickeningly adorable, he prepared to maul it severely. It was then he realised that what had awoken him had been the wind in the trees.

Sitting and looking at the stars as the trees shook in the wind, Uro quietly pondered the question of how one might go about the mauling of the wind. The problem, he decided, was touching it. It was quite a big thing to touch, to be certain. It was possible, he thought, he was touching it at the moment, but how could he be sure of that? What precisely about a sensation denoted it as touch? What, for that matter, truly made a sensation a taste, or a smell, or a sound? What is it that makes us feel these things? Was it possible to truly touch anything. . .

His attention span gave out and he mauled a nearby rock quite fiercely.

This, it may be said, was the beginning of Uro's troubles.

The rock, for a start, was, at his underdeveloped point, a good deal harder than any bit of his body could reasonably be expected to be. The other bad thing about mauling a rock is that rocks are sometimes in loose ground; this rock was not an exception.

The rock, in response to the mauling, tumbled, with our friend Uro attached, down the rest of a small hill, followed by a four-foot drop. These things, unfortunately, injured poor Uro. His injuries prevented him moving or, to his total horror, mauling. He simply lay, injured, and emitted what he wished could be a growl, but came out as more of a raspy whine.

After lying there for some time, he fell asleep again, and would probably have been picked clean by scavengers had it not been for the intensely beautiful woman that happened to pass by at the moment. Her arrival awoke him, and waking up, he did what any self-respecting badger would do: growl.

Self-respecting injured badger, that is. It is of course to be assumed that, upon waking, a self-respecting badger, at the height of health and with no problems in sight, would immediately set about mauling whatever was handy.

Genshu, having never seen a badger, had no understanding of the ancient tradition by which they lived, breathed, ate, slept and, above all, mauled. Her compassion at seeing an injured animal, however, was touched, and she thought this injured animal particularly cute, which, although it shouldn't be, is often to the advantage of an injured animal. Kneeling down, a smile on her face, she gently placed her hands over him, a pure white light coming from them.

Uro, overwhelmed by the urge to maul this light, felt a rush of cool air as his wounds healed. Genshu removed her hands slightly as he stood up and growled at her, which was adorable, ready to maul, his front legs down, his back legs up and ready to spring, his incredibly short tail, surely the product of some evolutionary narcotic, waggling adorably. Genshu smiled wider and pet him.

Our friend froze at this. He did not understand this strange gesture, nor see how it warranted mauling. Didn't everything warrant mauling? He liked it, and so was only able to bite her finger in a way she considered affectionate. The strange woman, as he thought he was, smiled and scratched his neck, causing his head to crane upwards in a particularly defenceless fashion. He enjoyed this, and mauling left his mind. He did not wish to maul her, in the same way he had not wished to maul his mother. Genshu opened her hand for him to step onto. In a trance, he stepped forward, all thought of mauling disappearing in the peace of the deep green eyes.

Genshu pet the creature gently. It came up to her shoulder and rubbed against her hair, cooing softly.

He bashed his head against her, trying to force himself to maul.

She laughed her sparkling laugh. "You should really get back to your mother now," she said.

The words were nothing to him next to this fascinatingly un-maulable object he had found. He had to find out more about it before returning to his mother. He simply collapsed, lying on her shoulder moodily.

"Oh, you want to come with me?" Genshu looked hesitant as the creature snuggled onto her shoulder. "Well, alright." She smiled and scratched his tiny head, smiling at the noise he made. "I could use somebody to talk to,"

As the finger touched his head, our little friend made a noise of lament at his complete lack of the desire to maul.

"I'll call you Uro," said Genshu. "It was my father's name, and it means 'Gracious One'. You are most certainly a sweet one." She laughed again as she said this, further driving the maul instinct from Uro's head.

The beautiful woman and the confused badger walked deeper into the wood, bathed in the sun of a cool October midday, as something horrible happened not far away.

Vegeta and Torren lay in the pockmarked field their battle had created. Both were still bleeding very impressively, each sporting a number of unpleasant gashes destined to become scars that they would one day use to frighten off young children gawking at the grouchy old men.

"Ow," Vegeta said, following his first attempt to speak. Then he forced it out. "You were. . . pretty damn good. . . Torren. . ."

"Heh," said Torren, wincing. "That means a lot coming from you." He winced as a bit of blood seeped from his mouth. "But you. . . certainly weren't bad. Maybe we could do this again sometime."

Not far off, something horrible happened. There was a pause as both felt it.

"Not much we can do about that, is there?" Said Torren.

"I guess not. I think the ability to move is a prerequisite to taking action," Vegeta answered.

They both continued laying prostrate and bleeding. "How are we going to get out of here, by the way?" Torren chanced.

Gohan's body flew along at a casual speed, the unpleasant thing possessing it trying to find the power it sought. "Damn," it thought, "he's not here."

A grim, empty smile spread across it's face as a sprawling, busy city came into view. "But wherever he is, that would certainly draw him," it's mind concluded.

Gohans body rocketed towards the city.

On the surface, a few people saw it as it stopped in the air above, a tiny dot. A portly businessman cleaned his glasses and looked at it again.

The smile on it's face became emptier than before as the index finger of the right hand pointed into the city. At this point Tennin was just finishing the Furishun.

Slowly, a point of yellow light blasted to life on the outstretched fingertip, then left it. To the increasing number of onlookers on the ground, the sphere of brilliant yellow seemed to hover for a moment in the vast space between the body that had loosed it and the target for which it was destined, as if trying to decide what the hell to do.

Then it crashed into the centre of the city, and the yellow flash inscribed the final arc in the story of their lives. The city and its people were immolated in the brilliant explosion, an explosion that caught the attention of every warrior on earth and of two that were far away.

Among them was the one that the spirits within Gohan's body sought.

The body hung suspended in the air, it's finger still extended towards the ground, a smoking crater stretching for several miles, the cold, empty smile still on it's face. Moments after the explosion, two figures, one much taller than the other, appeared in the air several feet away.

Goku started in surprise and shock at the scene before him. He looked at the body of his son cautiously. "Gohan. . .?" After an infinitesimal second, he grew angry. "Who are. . ."

He stopped abruptly as Tennin, his hair above his head, a flaring Super Saiya-jin yellow, lashed across Gohan's face with his fist, ripping out eight very important teeth. Drawing his right leg up, he kicked Gohan's body very hard in the back, sending it rocketing into the crater it had created. It bounced once, emitting an unpleasant cracking noise and then laying still.

"Tennin. . ." Goku said, staring wide-eyed at his enraged brother. He stopped short, turning his head as he felt three powers approaching from the east. One was very faint.

Tennin looked as well, his hair turning white and falling to his shoulders once more.

"It's Goten, Trunks and Piccolo," Goku said. "Piccolo's ki is so weak!"

"They must have been attacked by that," he said, gesturing angrily to Gohan's prostrate body, far below.

Trunks and Goten flew into sight, supporting Piccolo's sagging form between them. "What happened?" Goten asked tentatively.

Trunks looked to where Gohan and his teeth lay. "Who did that?" He asked with surprise.

"I did," Tennin said. "I got a little carried away, but I was angry."

"I don't mind," Trunks said. "It's exactly what I would have done."

"So what happened to you guys?" Tennin asked.

"Well," Trunks began, and stopped short, looking at the ground.

Gohan's body was standing up. It stood fully, blood pouring from it's mouth, which nevertheless smiled. Rocketing off the ground, the body stopped level with Tennin, about thirty feet away from him. It smiled widely at him, which made Tennin shudder. "I bet you thought you'd put me out for longer than this, didn't you?"

Tennin smiled at Gohan in a friendly way, "No problem, I can just do it again."

"Gohan!" Goku said, angrily. "Why did you kill all these people!?"

Gohan's body laughed. The sound of it's voice was like Gohan's, yet subtly different. "I am not your kinsman," it said. "I am a demon inhabiting his body." The eyes shifted to Tennin. "That means that no matter how extensive or agonising the pain you inflict upon me, I will not feel it. In fact, I welcome you to kill me, so I can force you to put to death all of these insignificant flies, one by one."

"What are you talking about?" Tennin said.

"Well, if you destroy this body, then I will move to another. If you don't kill them, I will simply cause more and more death."

"Why don't you move to my body?" Tennin said, smiling.

"Tennin, are you crazy!?" Goten whispered fiercely.

"I'm no fool," spoke the demon within Gohan. "You are a Kai. You could easily put an end to me if I entered your consciousness." Gohan's eyes looked at Tennin, filled with grim mirth. "Your options are quite limited, eh?" It laughed as Tennin stared at it, nervously.

The two girls who had been sleeping at Kami-Sama's Lookout suddenly sat up simultaneously, fully awake, their pure blue eyes focusing on nothing in particular.

The long-haired one looked at her sister. "Ilyar, we seem to be causing undue pain to the people of this world."

"Hopefully they realise it is not our intention anymore, Fenyar" said the other.

"In any case, we must stop it," Fenyar said again.

Ilyar's lovely blue eyes were downcast. "I would not have imagined there was enough malice in us to create a demon of such evil."

"Come," said her sister, slipping off of the bed.

Both walked out of the small room they had been in, to see Dende, God of Earth, and Mr. Popo standing at the edge of the lookout, both looking nervous.

"Excuse us," said Ilyar.

Mr. Popo and Dende turned and leapt into the air in fear and surprise. "Uh. . . hi," Dende said to the girls.

Both smiled and bowed politely. "They're definitely not the same," Mr. Popo said.

"Yes," said Ilyar. "We expelled the evil within us, so as you know we must go quickly,"

"but we wanted to thank you for helping us when Tennin-San brought us here," Fenyar finished her sentence.

"Thank you," they both said together. Then, simultaneously, they flew off.

"They're so. . . polite." Dende noted as they disappeared into the distance.

Tennin faced the possessed Gohan, staring worriedly at his indeed limited options.

"What're we gonna do?" Asked Goku, hovering beside his brother. Trunks and Goten, still supporting Piccolo, were behind them.

"I don't know," said Tennin, desperately.

Gohan's body laughed once again. "I'll give you a few minutes to decide."

"We might have to kill him," Tennin whispered.

"What!?" Goku said, far too loudly. He was immediately shushed from three directions. "There must be a better way."

"It's the only way I can think of," Tennin said. "It'll get him to transmigrate. I'm far from certain, but it's possible that I can capture the demons essence while it's in the process of moving from one body to another."

"That's crazy!" Goku said.

"Can you think of a better plan?"

"Dad," said Goten from behind. "I think Tennin's right. It's our only shot."

"Yeah," Trunks chimed in. "Besides, we can bring everyone back with the Dragon Balls. We don't have a lot of time to spend on this. We need to be training."

"Son of a bitch. . ." Piccolo said, coming to.

Goku looked at him, smiling. "Hey, Piccolo, you alright?"

Piccolo looked up at Goku, smiling groggily. "Yeah. I think I feel a rib he didn't break," he said as he shook free of the two teenagers, hovering on his own power.

"Alright, Goku, you make the shot," said Tennin. "I'll be waiting."

Gohan's body chuckled. "Aren't you ready yet? Well, that's just. . . just. . ."

He was staring over the heads of his enemies, wide-eyed.

"What's he staring at?" Goku asked Tennin.

"Uh. . . I guess he's trying to trick us. I don't sense any. . ." as he spoke, Ilyar and Fenyar floated down in front of him. "You two?" He said curiously. "But I didn't sense anything."

Both looked back at him, smiling sweetly. Their smiles made Tennin smile in his own disarming way.

"We suppressed our ki so they would not run, Tennin-San." Ilyar informed him.

Tennin chuckled and blushed slightly. "Tennin-San? You guys are gonna embarrass me. Just call me Tennin." He cleared his throat. "What do you mean they. . .? Oh, yeah! Of course there would be two demons. But why did they both choose to inhabit one body?"

"We don't know," Fenyar said. "But we should deal with them. Please excuse us."

"This should be interesting," said Goku as they turned.

"Yeah. . . Tennin-San," Goten said.

Tennin flushed as if he had a button for it.

Fenyar spoke forcefully to Gohan's body. "Come out of that man immediately!"

"Yes!" Said her sister. "You have no right to visit your anger on these people."

"My anger!?" Gohan spoke, incensed. "It is your duty, I suppose you've forgotten!"

But the girls were no longer listening. Both had their right arms outstretched toward Gohan, focusing.

Gohan's mouth opened, and a black sludge spilled from it, which resolved into two forms, both of whom resembled the girls in almost every way, except that their eyes were the black on yellow as Ilyar and Fenyar's had once been. They regarded their twins angrily.

Gohan's body immediately fell towards the ground, as Goku phased in and caught it. The girls continued to remain as they were, staring at each other

"Lord Mushube. . ." said the demon version of Ilyar,

"will kill you for this. . ." Fenyar's twin said.

Both demons charged their counterparts simultaneously.

Fenyar blocked a vicious left kick from her counterpart, but cried out as she took a left kick in the side.

Ilyar entered into a frenzied exchange with her counterpart, in which she was pummelled with crushing blows.

Tennin looked on curiously. "The demons seem stronger, don't you think?" He asked his brother.

"Yeah," Goku said. "That sucks."

Ilyar rocketed away from her own battle, kicking her sisters twin in the face, grabbing her left leg with both hands, and throwing her hard into her own demonic counterpart.

"We might need to help them. I'll do it, Goku, you just look after Gohan."

Goku nodded, and then stared at the good versions of the twins, who were side by side in the air, gathering energy. Even though they were children, their movements and postures were very elegant. Each was surrounded by their own aura of purple ki.

Fenyar, on the right, drew her left arm up as her sister did the same with her right. They both spoke together. "Shisoya. . ."

They extended their hands, side by side. "Ha!" they both yelled, releasing a dense, powerful beam of bright purple ki towards their demon counterparts. The evil twins, smiling, drew back and blasted a similar technique, although much stronger. The beams met with an electrical crackling of ki.

The warring energies met between the two pairs of sisters, crackling and hissing electrically. Tennin's long hair blew back in the hot wind as he looked on, focusing intensely, waiting for the right moment.

Effortlessly, the evil sisters poured ki into their blast, driving back their counterparts. There was a brilliant explosion. The bright light waxed quickly and then faded.

The evil sisters looked on mockingly to where their counterparts had been. "At least we achieved our vengeance," the demon Fenyar said.

"Yes. The traitors are dead." The other affirmed.

"They are?" Tennin spoke from below them.

Both evil sisters looked to him simultaneously. They also frowned simultaneously.

Tennin stood, unmoved, where he had been before. In each arm he held one of the twins, who looked as surprised as their counterparts. They looked up at him. "Tennin-San!" They said together.

Tennin smiled down at them as he released both sisters. "You guys did good," he said to both of them. "You tried your best. Personally I thought you'd win."

"We wanted to destroy the evil within us on our own," said Fenyar.

"but we weren't strong enough. . ." Ilyar finished.

"Don't worry about it!" Goku chimed in exuberantly. "You tried your best, and that's all you can do."

"Yeah," said Tennin, looking up. "But who's gonna deal with them now? I don't want to kill children."

"Too bad my dad isn't here," Trunks said with sarcasm.

The demons looked on hatefully, knowing there was nothing more they could do. "We have no choice," Tennin said grimly. Goku seemed to agree, handing Gohan to Goten.

"Wait!" the demon Fenyar said, her voice full of tears.

"We're sorry!" Said her sister.

"Please don't hurt us!" The other said, sniffling. "We won't do bad stuff anymore."

Tennin arched an eyebrow. "You guys are really desperate, aren't you?" He shook his head. "That's just sad."

But Goku looked on them mercifully. "If. . . if they promise not to hurt anyone again, maybe we should let them go. . ." he said.

Tennin looked at his brother. "Are you out of your mind? These are first-order demons! They aren't susceptible to change. Maybe a lesser one, like Piccolo, but not them."

Goku shook his head. "You're right! I can't let them trick me."

The demons growled angrily.

Tennin went from staring at his brother to smiling. Such a pure heart, he thought. I can't conceive of that kind of innocence. He was shaken from his thoughts by the small fist that ripped by his face with a force that would smash rock. Moving around several lightning-fast blows from the desperate demon attacking him, he finally struck. Pivoting to his left, he smashed across the face of the demon-girl, his own expression grim, watching as her unconscious form flew away from him. Righting himself and stretching out his left arm, he looked to his brother as he prepared to release the ball of energy that would end the demon's life. He saw his brother phase in behind the other, knocking it to the ground with a two-fisted blow.

Goku extended his arm towards the demon he had knocked to the ground, staring at her. Setting his face, a ball of energy flared into life on his palm. He floated there for a moment, arm outstretched, before lowering it. "I. . . I'm sorry, Tennin. I can't kill a child."

"Don't kill them," Ilyar said before either could launch their coup de grace. Tennin and Goku looked at her.

"We have to stop them somehow," Tennin said, "or they'll kill more innocent people."

Fenyar smiled in a self-satisfied way. "They won't do anything while you're around, Tennin-San," she said, as Ilyar nodded sweetly.

"..." was Tennin's embarrassed response.

"So what do you want us to do?" Asked Goku, looking at them with his 'I'm confused' face.

Ilyar spoke. "Let them go. It shames us that we cannot destroy the evil within us."

"And so we will grow stronger over time, and then defeat them. They are no threat to anyone while Tennin-San is around," Fenyar, characteristically, finished.

"If, that is," Ilyar spoke, "we are not incorrect in thinking that your extrasensory abilities are far beyond those of any other being on this world."

"I guess so..." Tennin said, unable to speak in the face of the immense respect he was being shown.

Goku smiled. "Well, I understand that! Fine, we'll let them go." He looked at the demon girls sternly. "You're free to go. But if you cause any trouble, we'll be there faster than you can blink!"

"Yes," Tennin chimed in, recovering himself. "Go in peace for now."

Both demon girls smiled. "This is a dire mistake on your part," demon Ilyar spoke.

"But we won't try to dissuade you from it." Her sister finished.

"Go," Fenyar said to the evil twins. "But expect to be seeing us soon!"

The demon girls flew off to the North.

Tennin and Goku, chuckling slightly, ascended to where the Saiya-jins, the girls, and the Namekian were. Both girls bowed politely. "Thank you again, Tennin-San!" They said, making Tennin blush again. "Is he alright?" Fenyar said, gesturing to Gohan, held by Goten.

"Yeah, thanks to you," Goku said.

"Hey, do you guys have names?" Tennin asked.

"We did, long ago," Ilyar said. "Mine was Ilyar."

"And I am Fenyar," said, predictably, Fenyar.

"Long ago?" Tennin said curiously. "How old are you?"

"We don't really know," said Fenyar. "But we had fought alongside Mushube for many ages before we came here."

Ilyar took up the thought, as both sisters avoided Tennin's eyes. "We did many evil deeds in that time."

Tennin smiled in the reassuring way that he smiled. "Don't worry about that! You guys were under his control. That doesn't count."

"That makes me feel better, Tennin-San," Ilyar said happily.

"It's still embarrassing when you call me Tennin-San..."

Piccolo awoke, chuckling. "Son of a bitch! Can we do this later? I feel like shit."

"You look quite like shit," said Tennin.

"Thanks," Piccolo responded.

"I'm just glad that little scare is over," Goku said. "Now let's get Piccolo and Gohan home so they can rest."

Tennin nodded, turned, and looked at Ilyar and Fenyar. "Are you guys coming?"

Both beamed at him. "We will go wherever you do, Tennin-San."

The group flew off, amidst significant snickering.

Vegeta and Torren, an hour or so later, were just beginning to gain the strength to move, when Tennin landed.

He stood over them, arms folded, looking upon them bemusedly. "You two seem to have a lot of trouble gauging yourselves," he said.

Vegeta barred his teeth, trying vainly to look menacing. "Gauge ourselves!? Aren't you concerned in the least about what might be coming!?"

Tennin shrugged. "Of course I am." Opening his arms, he gestured to his raggedy garments. "Son and I did some pretty hard training, as you can see, and I fully intend to spend every day involved in similar pursuits. But we know when to stop."

Vegeta snorted as Torren beside him grinned. "I'm almost able to move again, you know."

"I'm utterly petrified," Tennin said. With a final chuckle, he shook his head. "Come on," he said, bending and helping them both up in turn.

"Ah. . . that's a bit better," Torren said, loosening up.

"Can you guys fly?" Tennin asked.

"Can you stick it up your ass!?" Vegeta yelled.

"I really don't know how Buruma handles you," Tennin said, shaking his head. "If you can fly, follow me. Goku and Chi-Chi are having another get-together at their house." After this, Tennin flew off to the East.

"I don't like him," Vegeta said.

"You don't seem like the kind who likes people," Torren offered.

"Given," Vegeta admitted. "But him I particularly don't. He's been here less than two days and he's already criticising my relationship."

"I might be jumping on that boat soon myself," Torren remarked sarcastically as he flew off.

Vegeta, snorting derisively, followed.

Muten Roshi, like many of us, saw every social function which he attended as an excuse to consume large amounts of alcohol. This had the effect of transforming him from an elderly martial artist afflicted by an acute and, many would say, unhealthy obsession with women's undergarments, into a rambunctious, loud, and, usually, shirtless, party-goer.

This particular social function, a gathering of Goku's family and friends, was no exception. Chi-Chi was cooking the flesh of several unfortunate mountain animals in an open pit outside their home, as Muten Roshi roamed around, shirtless, screaming about sake and asking people if they had seen his turtle.

Attendance here was not as robust as it had been when Tennin had first arrived. Piccolo sat in the air menacingly, being as personable as he could, a posture which would have frightened away loads of small children. Tennin and Goku were both slightly tipsy, standing somewhere off to the left with their arms around each others shoulders, trying to figure out a song they both knew so they could sing it together loudly. Videl was by the cooking pit, talking to Chi-Chi, with her daughter Pan, who was striking up a conversation with Ilyar and Fenyar, who, she was finding, were very different from other girls her age. Kuririn was, for some reason, there, with 18 and Yamucha. They were sitting around not doing much, which seemed to have become their job description. Goten was with his father trying to make his blonde, large-breasted date laugh so that people would look at her. Trunks was there too, helping Goten play with the slightly tipsy sensibilities of Goku and Tennin. Muten Roshi had managed to drag Oolong along for the ride, and Puar was floating nonsensically near Yamucha, who had long ago been forbidden to bring dates to these kinds of things, and who was consequently a little pissed.

Vegeta was inside the house with Torren, being disdainful of everyone outside, as his wife sat against the Son family house, her knees drawn to her chest, staring at Tennin and Goku pensively. It was unusual for Buruma to behave this way, particularly when there was alcohol around.

Gohan, whose luck had not been good lately, was unconscious in his bed.

The stars were coming out, as several people who could have immolated entire planets with a flick of their wrist became extremely intoxicated. Tennin held himself back slightly, wanting to get some time alone with the lovely Genshu, who had showed up late with a badger and a smile.

During the song speculation with his brother he had lost sight of her, but, of course, knew where she was. Ilyar had been on the nose about Tennin's extrasensory abilities. Tennin's sensitivity to spiritual, physical, psychic, and emotional vibrations was unheard of, even among the kai. He made the oldest of the Gods of the Universe look like amateurs with his ability to see and feel everything. Tennin almost always knew what people were thinking and feeling, as well as any physical ailments they might possess. As a warrior, it almost negated the need to see. When he was younger, his powers had been maddening until he learned to control them, as the entire universe unfolded in his minds eye.

He had at last managed to break away from the arm of his brother and the vain attempt to find a song they both knew. He saw her sitting on a grassy out-thrusting of sandy stone not far from Goku's house.

She looked at him as he approached her, still wearing the clothes he had started the day in, which were, by any standards, in bad shape. He had discarded his golden Saibot sash, which had been torn beyond recognition. There were no clothes in Goku's house for someone of his size, and he, unlike many other divine beings, had never learned the trick of conjuring garments. So he still wore his ragged shirt and almost entirely destroyed pants. Genshu wore a pure white robe with a kimono underneath. "Hi," she said over her shoulder, as Uro, not far away, mauled something ferociously. It was a leaf.

Tennin's eyes shifted to the bits of leaf flying in the air. "So who's the badger?" He asked as if it was a common question.

Genshu smiled. "Uro is my new friend."

"Uh. . . I see." He sighed slightly and sat next to her. She sat beside him, the thoughts of each dwelling on the other.

"Do you believe. . ." he began. "That two souls who are meant to find one another will ultimately do so, even if entire realities lie between them, and it seems as though no force could bring them together?"

Genshu smiled to herself, letting the emotions she felt wash over her. "Do you?" She asked. As she spoke, she knew that giving in to what she felt could be a mistake, but trying to deny it would have been one too.

Tennin looked at her when she asked him this. "Well. . . yes." Looking at the ground and then at the emerging stars, where, Tennin noticed, his eyes seemed to dwell more than most others did, he said: "I mean. . . I've never seen it happen. Although I think it would be foolish to believe otherwise. My mother was definitely not meant for my father."

Looking at him deeply, Genshu spoke, quietly. "Do you think you will ever find your soul?"

Looking into her eyes nervously, Tennin debated as to whether he should speak what was in his mind. Instead of doing that, he just said: "I have absolute faith that I will."

Genshu smiled in a way that Tennin hadn't seen her do yet. This was interesting, as what she had done since she got here was, mostly, smile. "I do too," she said, which Tennin thought was very good. "What about these people?" She said, looking away from him. "Has their search succeeded?"

Tennin smiled as he remembered Chi-Chi's prodigious temper and how Buruma just didn't seem to belong with Vegeta had screamed at Goten. "Well, I don't know that I can say. They don't really seem to belong together, but. . ."

"Will of the universe," Genshu said.

"Will of the universe, right. . ." agreed Tennin. The conversation took a breather. "But of course," Tennin said, opening it again. "If the universe put Buruma, for instance, with Vegeta. . . then I have some questions for management." Genshu smiled. "Hey!" Tennin said, a brilliant idea occurring to him. It suddenly fizzled out as he remembered something. Embarrassed, he simply failed to follow up his exclamation.

Genshu waited, politely, for a moment. "Hey what?" She said, after growing impatient.

"Oh uh. . ." Tennin spit out nervously. "Forget it. I had an idea I thought was great, but it was based on a really rude assumption that I realised was wrong and, therefore, rude."

Genshu blinked at him. "Tell me what it was."

"Oh, well. . . you can fly, can't you?" She sighed in a frustrated way, which made Tennin think she was angry with him. "I told you. . ."

"No," she interrupted. "The thing is, I can't fly."

An image of Genshu flying in Tennin's mind clearly contradicted this statement. "But I saw you. . . this morning."

"I know. . ." she said a bit poutily.

"So you can fly then?"

"No."

"Then what. . ." Tennin said, beginning to be confused.

"I fell." She said quickly.

Tennin paused thoughtfully. "What do you mean?" He chanced.

"I mean I was flying, and I just fell. Right outside the city."

"You just. . . fell?"

"Yes. It was like I sort of. . . stopped working. I haven't been able to fly since then."

Tennin blinked several times, although it didn't help. "Maybe there's some fundamental difference here that keeps you from functioning as you did on. . . Mikkon, was it?"

She nodded, hugging her knees to herself and resting her chin on them. "I can't think what, though. As far as the physical environment is concerned, the worlds are very similar." She looked over at him thoughtfully. "The only thing that's really different is that you're here."

To this, Tennin smiled, as the conversation was finally going where he wanted it to. "Well, yeah, I'm pretty great, but I seriously doubt I effect the laws of physics."

"No," She said, "I mean that I can't stop thinking about you."

"Same here," he affirmed quietly. "Although it hasn't stopped me from flying."

"Lucky," she said. Sighing, she continued. "So, now that you know your assumption was correct, what was your idea?" She asked although she thought, or rather hoped, she knew what it was.

"Well," he said, moving closer to her, which she was totally unable to mind him doing. "I was thinking that we could fly for a while. Maybe I could try to teach you."

"What about your friends and family? I think they're about to start singing." She said, smiling again in that way he hadn't seen her smile.

"Well," he said, "I might have come here for them, but I like what I've found better."

"So do I," she said. "Let's go."

Her arms around his neck, they flew off into the glistening sky.

A shirtless Muten-Roshi ran along beneath, screaming at them to give him his turtle.

Far away and to the north, the evil versions of Ilyar and Fenyar were lounging in the mountains, watching the stars come out. Their anger had, at least temporarily, deserted them, and they were watching the stars in fascination.

"Perhaps there are good things about this planet," Ilyar said.

"Like what?"

"Like... the sky."

Both demons fell into a peaceful sleep, which they had not done in their memory, dreaming of how far away they were from Mushube.


End file.
